Evangelion: Continuum
by Daetor
Summary: The angel wars are over, but the real war is beginning only now after TI. Can Asuka and Shinji aided by new powers end it? Summary sucks, but check it out anyway. S/A, rating may get higher.
1. Chapter 1

A new beginning

Chapter 1: Redefining Reality

By: Daetor

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to this story or the characters, I'm just obsessed by it. I'm writing this because i want to and no other reasons, I'm not getting paid or anything. Gainax owns this stuff and they can sue me if they don't like what i did here.(Though I hope they don't)

Asuka felt awake again, after it began, after what began she asked herself, then she remembered her Eva running out of power, the Eva series ripping her to pieces. Then Shinji asking her for help and she refused, then thoughts, minds, souls, merging with her, she had wanted to run but it was over for some reason. She opened her eyes, realizing she was naked, wishing she had some clothes. As if on queue her yellow dress appeared on her, but that didn't calm her mind though, because she was nowhere in a sea of white.

She then saw someone, she got on her feet trying to approach the person, wandering how she could stand on nothing. She moved closer and saw Rei, in her school uniform, but she was not alone. Behind her floated another figure, a woman who seemed somewhat transparent, yet somehow more real that the girl before her, a woman with a determined look on her face and a burning flame in her eyes. The woman had long brown hair and was wearing on odd uniform, black and red, with what looked like some strange armor plates over her shoulders, her chest and her legs. Her eyes were frightening, the irises were green encircled by burning red flames.

"Rei? Where am I?...What is this place?" Asuka asked angered by her own fear.Why am I so afraid? She asked herself, not knowing that 'here' there was no difference between words and thoughts.

"It's normal to be afraid." Two voices answered instead of one but, only Rei spoke with her mouth. The second voice was older, it had to be the woman's, and it wasn't an echo. The two voices spoke in perfect unison, as if it came from one person, one thought."Everyone fears what they cannot understand. You are no exception to that rule."

"I'm not afraid!" Asuka protested.

"Do not deny it." The two voices spoke again, in the same frightening manner."Here, here is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He has decided to return, and so everyone can return, you as well." The voices paused for a moment as if gathering the proper words."I will leave you a gift, a very special gift, which will help you choose your own destiny and be an important part in shaping the destiny of the world."

Then Rei placed her hands over her chest and in them appeared a sphere of red light. The flame in the eyes of the woman behind her disappeared as Rei gave the sphere to Asuka. Asuka took it into her hands, feeling drawn to it by some reason. She looked at it wondering what it was, and why did Rei give it to her. Then another thought came to her, who was that woman?

"I... what is this? What do I do with it?"Asuka managed to ask.

"Keep it in your heart and use it when you need it." The two replied with no visible emotion. No, that wasn't true, there was hope.

"What about you two?"Asuka asked, trying to get at least one straight answer. Rei seemed to frown a little from the question."Rei?"

"No, I'm not Rei... I have never been Rei." The voices said confusing Asuka even more.

"How can you not be Rei?"

"What you see are not two beings. You see that which you know and that which I was... a long time ago before this Earth" The voices paused then both figures stared Asuka into the eyes."You know me as Lilith, the second Angel, but those are just names given by humans, nothing more. I am not important anymore, it's time to end my role in this war."

"What war? The war with the Angels?"Asuka asked, suddenly realizing who she was speaking to. As she did she failed to notice the red sphere melt into her hands, becoming one with her, forever. She didn't know at that time but she would be grateful for that gift later.

"No, that was just a battle in this war. The war I'm speaking of is much older, older than human life on this planet."The voices stated."Take care of him, and make good use of my gift." Then everything faded into nothing for Asuka.

--

Shinji found himself in front of Kaworu, after his conversation with both him and Rei, only that this time, Kaworu held a bright blue sphere of energy in his hands and he was handing it to Shinji. "Thanks..."Shinji said not knowing why.

"This is my final gift to you, Shinji Ikari. It cannot make up for my mistakes but it can help you make up for yours." Kaworu stated, then looked behind him where an enormous figure stood bathed in light, the first Angel, Adam.

"This is the last time I'll see you isn't it?" Shinji asked.

"Yes. It's time for me and Lilith to end our war, and leave your people find a new path. Neither of our previous plans worked, that's why I'm leaving you my power, and Lilith is leaving hers to 'her'."Kaworu stated then looked at Shinji, with a strange trace of guilt in his eyes."We cannot be gods, I now know that lesson, you should remember it as well, so that you won't make the same mistakes we made so long ago."

"I don't understand all of this..."Shinji said, feeling confused and somewhat hopeless."How will I know what to do? What if I end up hurting everyone again? What if I end up not being able to help her again?"

"Follow your heart. This power is only yours and no one can tell you how to use it." Kaworu said offering a warm smile."There will be someone there to help you, he won't deny you your freedom. This time you will be able to make your choices as you wish."

"I...what about..."Shinji muttered not knowing himself what he wanted to say. Finally he managed to form his thoughts into a question."Will I have to fight again?"

"That is you decision, but sometimes you have no choice if you want to protect the things you believe in and especially those you love." Kaworu said."Will you run away again?"

Shinji thought, he said before that he wouldn't but in the end he did. Still this time it was different, he felt that he couldn't and he didn't have anything to run away from anymore. He could only run away from himself now, but there was no point in it, this time, he wouldn't.

"I won't run away, not again."He finally said.

"Then you are ready." Kaworu said and Shinji was enveloped by darkness. He didn't know it then, but he would never run away again.

--

In the physical reality, Lilith's giant form collapsed, it was destroyed as all the souls were released back in the world and a giant sea of LCL filled the hole in which the geo-front once stood. On one of the shores, what seemed to be an Eva unit similar to the first ones stood and watched silently. It raised it's arms as the souls were released and a red light emanated from it as the souls were scattered all over the world, back to where they belonged, or where they wanted to go.

After it was over, the monster kneeled as if it was recovering after a great effort. If anyone would have been near it, they would have heard the tired sigh it gave out, which sounded almost human. 'It will be a long night' a thought ran trough it.

--

Asuka opened her right eye, feeling her left one sore and her right arm in pain. She felt dizzy to say the least. 'Maybe this is how Misato feels when she wakes up after getting drunk.' She thought looking at the sky above her, the image of a trail of blood didn't make her feel any better. Only one thought echoed trough her mind:"Take care of him and make good use of my gift."

She turned her head to her left where she saw Shinji, he was doing the same thing as she was, staring at the sky. He got on his feet looking around. She just managed to stand a bit than she sits, feeling too exhausted to stand. She tucked her legs underneath herself, feeling cold in her plug-suit, and also feeling the smell of blood. They were both silent, neither of them daring to break the eerie silence that settled between them.

Shinji stared at the sea of LCL wondering if there was anyone left in the world around them, but he was to tired to think about it. He didn't want to look at Asuka, not after he tried to strangle her in that mixed up world of thoughts, not after killing everyone on the face of the planet in his selfish rage. Still he wasn't going to run away anymore, he had a gift from his friend, one which could change destinies or so he understood. Maybe there was still something he could do, maybe he could at least make something right.

Asuka was feeling just as confused at the moment, she didn't know what to do and the pain from her wounds didn't help her think at all. She was also wondering if anyone else was alive, but that wasn't important now. She remembered Shinji coming to the hospital to see her, and then the fact that she tried to strangle him. He came to see her and she tried to kill him, the thought made her feel awkward. She didn't even fight back in the world of thoughts when he tried the same thing, she knew she deserved it.

Neither of them wanted to talk, but both were glad that the other was there, even if they weren't really aware of it. Shinji admitted that he cared in his thought, well it was more than that, but he couldn't place his word on it just yet. Asuka on the other hand wasn't as willing to accept her own feelings towards the boy, she didn't even realize that she was grateful for his presence. Still the moment was broken by the loud landing of a giant beast further right down the shore, the creature as large as an Eva unit looked right at them.

Shinji knew they had to leave now, but when he looked at Asuka he knew that she probably couldn't move at all and he also became aware of his own pain in his chest. He probably had some broken ribs, maybe even more, he wouldn't be able to move to fast himself, much less carry the girl with him. Meanwhile, the monster turned it's head towards them, it resembled the mass production units, only that it had a pair of black eyes which held no expression.

At first it did nothing, then something red caught it's eye, Shinji could see the red spot in the giant monster's eyes. There was only one possibility, it was looking right at Asuka, and then the beast jumped forward. It lifted it's right arm and stretched it towards the girl who paralyzed in shock. She couldn't move, even if she could it wouldn't do her any good, but then her vision was covered by Shinji who put himself between her and the giant arm.

"Idiot, run!" She yelled.

'Let's see what you left for me Kaworu.' Shinji thought in the second before the impact. 'I won't abandon her again.' Then the arm hit, but it didn't reach the boy with his arms outstretched, it was stopped a meter away from him by a blue barrier. The creature began to push on the barrier, but it wouldn't give away, instead it seemed to push the hand back slowly, inch by inch.

Only one word came in Shinji's mind:'die, die, die' "DIE GOD DAMN YOU!" He yelled in anger the barrier lashed out and cut the arm of the monster in half, it threw it away as several flames made deep cuts in it's chest and face. The hits were furious and they threw the monster back, it fell and it remained silent for the moment, but Shinji collapsed and fell right on Asuka. She caught him as he slumped back, ignoring the pain in her right arm, she was just too shocked by what she has seen. "why?...How?" she managed to ask."Sorry..." was all Shinji could say before darkness wrapped it's gentle wings around him. The effort had been to much for him, his body was never ready for the new power he had.

Still it wasn't over, the creature began to stir again, it wasn't dead yet, and it had no intention of giving up. It had a purpose to fulfill and the Throne of Souls wouldn't be satisfied with failure. Asuka looked in horror as the beast got on it's feet. Still it didn't even get the chance to take a good look at it's targets, because several spikes impaled it.

The spikes flew from the other side of the LCL sea, or at least that was where they had been fired. The source of the spikes, another giant beast, landed on the first while extending some ribbon like tentacles from it's shoulders. They reminded Asuka of the 14th angel and it's ribbon arms, only that these were eight and they seemed armor plated but they proved to be just as flexible as the 14ths arms. The second combatant quickly finished the already wounded monster, at least this one looked like a normal Eva unit.

It turned towards the two then kneeled, a sound was heard as if heavy doors were being opened somewhere. Then a man came from behind the unit and looked at the two, in his eyes you could clearly see guilt. He approached the two and Asuka wondered what he wanted, but she didn't feel afraid, there was something about him that made her feel that she could trust him. At the moment both her and Shinji needed help, but she tightened her grip on Shinji as if just by holding him she could somehow help him.

"Damn, I got here late. How bad is he?" The man asked.

"What?" Asuka asked surprised that he was more worried about them than other things."I don't know... He just collapsed, after..."After what? What did he do? How did he do it? And why? Did he do it for me? She thought unable to answer anything else, still at least the pain gave away and she could think properly.

"I see, I'll take you two at a safe place, before anything else tries to kill you. I'm sure that he would never forgive me if I'd let anything happen to you."

To be continued...

A/N: This is the first chapter of my first fic, but the thing is that I have more written out than this. Still, the head ache gives me with the formating prevented me from getting more out right away. Still if you want to see more, check out my profile, I'll have a link there, to where it's posted.


	2. Chapter 2

Evangelion: Continuum

Chapter 2: Taking care of loose ends

By: Daetor

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to this story or the characters, I'm just obsessed by it. I'm writing this because I want to and no other reasons, I'm not getting paid or anything. Gainax owns this stuff and they can sue me if they don't like what I did here.(Though I hope they don't)

Asuka woke up once more not knowing where she was or how she got there.This is becoming really annoying. she thought while trying to realize where she was. She was in a bed, in fairly large room, to her right were large windows and the sun was starting to bother her. That was probably the reason she woke up in the first place. Near the windows was a desk perfectly arranged so that you could work in peace while also being able to look out the windows and make use of the apparently abundant sun light. A pretty large closet was placed near the wall opposite to her, perfect for her needs. To the left she saw the door which led to the rest of the house, door which had a lock and a key in it. Still the room could use some decorations... She mused then she remembered what had happened and how she got there.

This was John's house, the mysterious soldier which rescued her and Shinji last night, he told her to make herself at home. She was too tired to think at that time and she was grateful for the chance to sleep somewhere comfortable. She slept well, and she felt surprisingly well, but the events from last night came back to haunt her. Nothing made any sense since then...

--

"I see, I'll take you two at a safe place, before anything else tries to kill you. I'm sure that he would never forgive me if I'd let anything happen to you." The man said with a slight smile on his lips. Asuka wondered what he meant, but she didn't have time to finish her thoughts when she noticed that the behemoth behind her began to move once more. The man seemed to concentrate a little and she recognized on his face the same expression she or Shinji had when they tried to synch with their Evas.

The creature moved a large container from it's back an placed it before them, moving around with care, looking almost worried. As soon as the container was placed down, the man relaxed his expression. He went to it and opened a part of it's front revealing an entrance, he then turned towards her."Ok let me carry him in, trust me he might need treatment. I have medical equipment inside and I can take a look at your wounds too. I hope that using that power didn't cause him any internal injuries..."

He took Shinji out of her arms as she reluctantly let go and went towards the container, she got on her feet and followed him. Something felt odd, her arm and eye didn't hurt anymore but she felt a lot more tired than before. She followed the man in, and she was surprised to see what looked like a hospital room much larger than the actual container. How was this possible, she asked herself but decided that the answer was unimportant at the moment. The strange man had already placed Shinji on a bed and turned towards her.

"Ok sit there, I'll check your wounds, he checked out all right, no physical damage from what I can tell it's only the shock of releasing so much energy." Asuka sat on a bed wondering how did he check anything since she couldn't see any real equipment around Shinji. Then he came and raised his right palm over her left eye, then she saw a bright red light from it and felt a pleasant warmth from his palm. He did the same for her arm, looking surprised at first then he smiled.

"You can take those of, it seems that you have regenerated and you've also healed him."The man said as he removed the bandages around her left eye. Asuka was at first scared but then she realized that she was able to see with both eyes. She then tore the bandage of her right arm herself, and then she looked at her arm, which was completely unharmed. Still the bandages, in both cases held traces of blood, her blood she realized, but how was that possible if she was uninjured. The man smiled at her surprise, he looked as if there was nothing unusual happening.

"What's going on?"She managed to ask."Well Asuka. I may call you Asuka right?" He said, but he was interrupted. "How do you know my name?"She asked."I doubt that there are many who don't know your name and Shinji's. You Eva pilots are pretty famous you know, but that doesn't matter now does it?"

He asked the last bit knowing all too well about her pride and how much she had paid for it. Normally Asuka would have loved the fact that someone recognized her as the pilot of Unit-02, but for some reason that didn't matter now. It was part of her life 'before', before Third Impact changed everything.

"My name is John and well it's rather difficult to explain what's going on."He began, his expression showing traces of sorrow for some reason. "First I suppose you want to know what happened to Shinji, then how come your wounds are healed."Asuka simply nodded surprised by the fact that she was actually going to receive some answers."Shinji used the light of his soul to stop that monster from attacking you. The light of the soul is an A.T. Field I guess, but it can do much more than what you've witnessed so far. Shinji received a lot of energy from the one you people refer to as Adam or the First Angel, yet he wasn't ready to use it yet. Only a very powerful emotion could have triggered that display, not anger nor hate..."

"Wait. are you saying that Shinji expanded an A.T Field of his own? That he got it from Adam?" Asuka asked finding it hard to believe, still this was a pretty good explanation for the barrier that stopped the initial attack. Remembering what she had been trough herself during Third Impact made this seem petty normal."Is that what he did? But why did he collapse?"

"As I said, he wasn't ready to use it yet. It's one thing to have the power and quite another to be able to use it. The energy probably surged through his body reacting to his emotions and will without any form of control. As soon as he was done, he collapsed since he couldn't keep himself conscious anymore due to the enormous strain on his body. That's what happened with him, physically he doesn't have any problems but that is because of you. On the other hand it might take his mind quite some time to recover, if ever..."

"WHAT?!" Asuka yelled in disbelief."Are you saying that he'll might remain like this for the rest of his life?!"She stopped because of John's gaze, filled with regret and sorrow, apparently, despite his calm, the situation pained him."I hope not, I'll do my best to ensure that things won't turn out that way." He said with a reassuring voice. "Still, he'll only wake up if he has reasons to live, and you're the only reason he has left at the moment..."

"Wha...What do you mean?"Asuka asked as her anger subdued, taken aback by shock and curiosity. "What do I have to do with anything?"

"Come on, you surely realized why he's in this state...Why he used that power..."

"Because of me?" She asked not wanting to believe those words, even though she knew they were true. "Yes... He did it to protect you, and the truth is that he's lucky that you were around when he fell, because you healed his internal injuries."

"I don't understand, how could I heal anything?" Asuka asked, wondering what could he mean."Tell me. Didn't the one named Lilith offer you a gift?"John asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I'll tell you after we've sorted some of this mess out. Suffice to say that your gift is just as powerful as Shinji's but it has a different nature. You wanted to help him when he slumped in your arms unconscious, right?" Asuka simply nodded."Your hidden power reacted to your emotions, even if you yourself are unable to accept them. Thus a part of your energy passed trough his body and healed his wounds, at the same time the energy had to exit your body first, so it healed yours as well. That's what happened."

"Still we don't have time now for this long story. I have to go back to the avatar and move you two to a safe place. I'll be damned if I let those bastards mess with children that way! Wait here and take care of Shinji, trust me Asuka, I won't let any of you get hurt, not if I can do anything about it."

With that said John exited the room and closed the door behind him. Then Asuka felt as if the whole place was being moved, the Eva unit outside must have lifted them again and it was probably moving them to who could say where. Still why did he call it an avatar? Asuka knew that there was a lot more going on than she could understand at the moment. For now she was contempt with watching Shinji who seemed asleep, he was relaxed, but then his expression shifted as if his dream took a turn for the worst.

Asuka placed her hand over his forehead wondering what was going on trough her mind about him, why should she care? Why did he care? She never did anything good to him. She had acted towards him as bad as she did with all other boys she met if not much worse. Why would he be different and why would he care at all? Why did he think he could understand her of all persons? She then felt a shock trough her arm, as if a pulse of energy came from his mind.

Asuka found herself watching Shinji as a young boy, as he was left behind by his father. The image quickly shifted and she saw trough Shinji's eyes, she saw Shinji's mother Yui climb in what seemed to be Unit-01 and falling victim to it, being absorbed completely as he was after the battle with the 14th. Asuka was shocked to discover this resemblance of her life with Shinji's, they had both lost their mothers to Eva and both of them were ignored if not even hated by their fathers.

It seemed that he could understand her, because at a certain level, he was just like her, only that he dealt with his problem in a different matter. While she pushed everyone away and pretended to be self-sufficient and strong, he ran away and closed his feelings within, letting everyone walk over him. You could say that each solution was the exact opposite of the other, but both were just as useless.

Asuka realized that if Shinji would have been in her place when the 15th attacked, he wouldn't have done any better himself, his memories would have probably finished him up as it happened to her. Also since the boy had the tendency to run away and back down from any threat, the effect on him would have been much worse then on her. Asuka wasn't certain, but she believed that he might have died in her place, or driven insane for good. Still, she was upset that he didn't try to help her if he cared so much.

The memories changed, Shinji was in his entry plug, she could feel his anger and she could hear her screams over the comm. link. He wanted to help, but his father didn't let him, he wasn't even allowed to connect to Unit-01, he could just sit there and listen to her screams. Asuka felt his emotions and she felt how every single scream of hers was tearing at his heart. She couldn't believe this, but it was true, if it wasn't for his father, Shinji would have jumped out there to her rescue for no other reason than the fact that she needed him. He didn't give a damn about the world or about his duty, all he thought was that he wanted to save HER.

Asuka snapped back to reality when the room jolted suddenly. She held Shinji preventing him from falling from his bed, and she felt regret. He was now in a coma because he had protected her and she might never get the chance to tell him anything. Even if he would have been awake, she wouldn't know what to tell him anyway, after all that happened her emotions had been tossed in a blender.

The room began to shake hard and she had to use all of her strength to keep Shinji in his bed. A hologram displaying John's face suddenly flickered to life near each bed."I'm afraid that we have some trouble outside, hold on since this will be a real bumpy ride." The hologram disappeared before Asuka could say anything, also, she knew that only one thing could cause this, they were under attack from something...

--

Outside, the avatar had extended it's blade tentacles once more, and it was flying high above the clouds. On it's back it had extended similar structures to the Eva's shoulder pilons, but these were longer and they emanated a field of energy which allowed the avatar to fly with incredible speed. It's eyes were glowing red and it maneuvered with astounding speed and agility which would be impossible for anything that would fly through any other methods. It held the container under it's left arm and had extended an energy field around it to protect it from the shocks caused by the speed maneuvers. In the full moon you could see it's red and black armor, which seemed more resilient than that of regular Eva units.

Behind it you could see two flying beasts, they struggled to keep up but the avatar was to fast for them. They were forced to fly with wings and had no means trough which they could properly compete with their target. They had attacked while it was in a cloud, using the element of surprise to their advantage, but the target escaped and was flying away. They were almost identical copies of the beast on the beach, and even though they didn't know it, they wouldn't have been much of a challenge for the avatar. Still the 'pilot' knew that he had other worries and he couldn't defeat the beasts while protecting his precious cargo.

'It seems that they're pretty determined to see this through before it even begins.' John thought from his position in the control sphere of the avatar's core.'Still they have no idea of who they're dealing with. I've allowed them to play around with humanity for long enough, it's time to allow humanity to strike back at these fiends. It will take some time to prepare everything, but I'll have it, they'll be more cautious after this failure.' John knew who his enemies were and he knew that it wouldn't be easy, but he also knew that he had no choice. He stood aside for too long and he knew that his intervention would lead to the end of this war that lasted for too many eons. That would have to wait however, his priority now was to take care of the two children that suffered so much until now. After the war they would be very important in returning humanity to it's former glory and surpass it. They could even be part of the war but that was their own choice, he wasn't even going to suggest it to them, in his opinion they had suffered enough.

The avatar followed on it's path until John was certain that nothing was following them anymore, there was one last step to take and then it would be impossible for their enemy to reach them in any way. He began a steep dive and plunged into the depths of the Atlantic ocean, deeper than any submarine would have dreamed of following. A black shadow opened before him and he entered it leaving from the world as the shadow disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. It was the to the Sanctuary, a place of which no one but it's inhabitants knew.

This place was hidden in the most unlikely of places, a Dirac sea, an inverted space closed in itself. Here you could see ten large spheres made out of heavy armor plates, but you had to have the adequate sensors to orientate yourself in a place like this. The spheres were linked together by enormous bridges, the sphere themselves were absurdly large, being large enough to contain several cities each of them. Amongst them, there was on which was in the center of it all, which was three times as large as the others.

The avatar went to it and a large door opened on it's surface. The door made the avatar look small since it was made for several such creatures to come out at once. The door closed behind it and the sound of air rushing in could be heard. Once the room was pressurized once more, another door opened before it and allowed John to enter, he was back at his domain, Central Sanctuary. He relaxed his tensed muscles, even though this wasn't over, he had to take a little break at least. Before that he would have to take care of Asuka and Shinji, the later needed to be taken to the hospital.

The avatar thus placed the container to a special receptacle designed for that exact purpose and then proceeded to rest on a giant throne like structure, several cables attached themselves to it's armor and technicians began buzzing around it checking it for damage. John came out from it's back and entered the "throne" as the technicians nick-named it. It was basically a massive chair on which the avatar rested and through which it was checked and repairs or medical interventions were given if necessary. It had no restraints, it reacted only if he wanted it to react, and no restraints in the world would have held it for more than a nanosecond if he wanted it to do anything.

He rushed with the medical crew to the container and opened the door. Asuka was holding Shinji in her arms again, she had no choice due to the violent shaking. He smiled thinking that if he didn't use his energy to buffer the effect, then the whole room would have been mangled and they would both had serious injuries from the enormous G-forces generated by his maneuvers. Asuka let go of Shinji as the medics ran in, they were led by a young woman with brown hair and dark eyes. She checked Shinji in the same way that John did but she seemed more concentrated and she kept her palm over her forehead for a longer time. She then muttered something to the other members of the medical team and they took Shinji away. She turned to them and went straight to John with a serious expression on her face.

"How is he Sarah?" John asked, hopping that the more experienced doctor might have seen something he missed.

"As well as can be expected, your report was pretty accurate. We'll have to monitor him for awhile but he should recover."Sarah replied." The poor boy is more lucky than he can imagine, her intervention might give him the extra push he needs to pull back. Apparently she made contact with his mind, she didn't do anything but he felt her presence, that will help if you're correct about his feelings towards her."

"You haven't seen what I've seen."John stated with a grin on his face." Anyway, I'll take her to my place so that she can take a nap. What do you think?"

"I don't know, sleep sounds good..." Asuka said since the last part was addressed to her. She was too tired to go on or to say anything against this idea. Her mind was on the brink of break down. John led her through a long series of tunnels and then they exited the complex through a lift. They came out in the yard of a large house, a real villa to say the least. He led her inside, gave her new clothes and showed her to the shower, as soon as she was done he practically had to carry her to the bed room and she collapsed in the bed falling asleep.

--

Asuka quickly got out of bed and went straight to the closet, she found clothes that were her size, fact which was surprising to say the least. Still her mind didn't dwell on the subject for any longer than a second. She had only one thing in mind, she had to find out what happened to Shinji. She ran out of the bedroom and then down the stairs to the left, despite the fact that she had been dizzy last night she remembered what little she had seen of the houses layout with surprising ease.

"Morning." John's voice greeted her as she came down."You're in an awful hurry to see him for a person who doesn't care. Anyway, I was expecting this so follow me." Asuka considered what the man just said but she decided that it was pointless to argue with him. "Fine lead the way. Don't get any ideas about me and that idiot!"

"Stop playing games with me, at my age you have no way of hiding emotions under shallow disguises." He stated with a tone that made it clear that he wasn't in the mood."Even at an age of 2349 years I can still have a limited patience sometimes. Especially with a situation as sensible as this one."

The last part hit Asuka and refused to fit in her thinking process, the age was impossible yet somehow the tone and the frequency of the voice convinced her that it was the truth. She somehow KNEW that what he said was true, even if it was impossible.

They exited the house and were now walking on a street towards the edge of a town, the season seemed to be autumn as the trees in the area had their normally green leaves turned in different shades of yellow and red. Asuka had never seen such a thing in her life and she couldn't understand what was going on. She wondered where they were, but she was more concerned as to how the man at her side convinced her that what he stated was true.

"How did you do that?"She managed to ask, despite the fact that the man was somewhat intimidating Asuka was not the kind of person who would back down easily."Do what?"John asked forgetting that she wasn't used to his talents as everyone else around here was."How did you put in to my mind the idea that what you said is true despite the fact that it seems impossible?"Asuka asked, with bits of anger showing in her voice."Oh that...It's simple, it is the truth, my mind knows it as a true fact. Knowing that I added energy in the air that carried the sound to your ears. That energy passed into your body and convinced it that the statement is as exact as a biological truth, like pain for example. I can only do that if my own body knows that the statement is true, otherwise I have nothing to impose on yours. In simpler words I used a little trick I know called the Tone of Truth."

"So you're really THAT old? What are you?" Asuka asked in shock."I'm just as human as you, only that my body is different along certain lines. You'll live a longer life than I will anyway."He said as if he was speaking of something perfectly normal, also Asuka realized that he was using the same 'trick' again."Ok so you're human... but I still find it impossible..."She said, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"I'll explain everything as soon as Shinji's awake again and after I've gathered anyone that needs to hear these things." John said as they entered the town and headed to a hospital building."Until then I'll get you used to this place. When I'm not around Sarah will show you the area and explain what she can. You're going to be living here, since this is the only place in the world where they can't find you."

"They? Who are they? What do they want from us?" Asuka asked desperately trying to make sense of all this madness."Though I have to admit that living here wouldn't be too bad... We can't go back to Tokyo-3, it's been destroyed in Third Impact..."She knew that this meant that all of her belongings and memories which were there had been destroyed as well. Still that wasn't all that important too many things had changed, she knew she'd have to move on. Asuka then wondered what happened to the people they knew there, they were all probably absorbed like she was than spat out again.

"John, I see that you've actually slept. So you brought the young lady to see her friend. How are you feeling miss?"Sarah greeted them from the hospital's entrance."I'm all right, How's Shinji?" Asuka asked the young doctor."He'll be fine, I'll take you to him. John, we received a report from the rescue teams and the armored division, they've recovered every person they were able to find in the LCL sea. I guess that you can proceed with your plans to recover the two units. That's what I know, anyway you've probably got the full report on your desk."

"Then I'll be leaving miss Sohryou into your care, I have no idea how long this will take. Allow her to get used to this place and send word immediately if Shinji wakes up." John said and then left, Asuka heard the fact that he was concerned. Who was that man and why did he care about them anyway. Did he need them as pilots? Whatever the reasons she decided to find out, thinking that maybe the young doctor would provide more information.

"Why is he doing this?" Asuka asked as Sarah lead her to Shinji's room in the hospital."Why? Well John is a really nice guy, he actually cares and he doesn't want anyone to get hurt. He knows both of your stories pretty well and he believes that you've been trough enough as it is. He wants to help, but I can't explain why without getting into private information. Still you can count on him telling you himself pretty soon."

"Does he need us as pilots?"She asked trying to find out ANYTHING."No, he'd never do that to you two or to anyone else for that matter. He'd even try to stop you if you wanted to do it yourself."

"Then why?"

"You'll see in time. For now be there for your friend and try to get used to this place. I or John will help you with the second. If things were to go as John wants them to, you two could live here in peace without having any worries of any wars." Asuka simply nodded and she entered Shinji's room, which resembled a normal hospital room, but it didn't have the same smell. It felt like a cozy room, a place in which patients could recover much more quickly than the normal hospital rooms. Asuka took a chair and sat besides Shinji's bed wondering when he would wake up.

--

John was back in his avatar and he was flying outside the atmosphere, heading towards his target. He was going to recover Unit-01, and the Lance of Longinus.'What a stupid name for that weapon, but humans are humans I guess and SEELE never had any real imagination while pretending to be humans.' He thought while stopping in front of the inactive Eva unit, his purpose wasn't the Eva itself and the Lance was just a bonus to him. His purpose was to free the soul trapped within, since in his opinion Yui Ikari deserved a better ending than this.

Also, he knew that Shinji would be glad to see his mother again, not to mention that she might have some extra information about his enemies which he might have overlooked. So he first removed the Lance from the purple mecha's hands, the lance seemed to liquefy at his touch being commanded by his powers. It merged with his avatar leaving no trace at the surface of the armor, but it would serve a new purpose later in the war. He then turned his back at the monster and caught it with the blade tentacles firmly immobilizing it.

With his target secured in place, John began his journey back to Earth and then Sanctuary, where they would begin their work to extract Yui's soul from the purple monster. Though he knew that even if they extracted the soul it would take a lot longer to reform a new body without causing her any harm. Still that didn't mean that she wouldn't be able to see Shinji until that happened, he had other ways...

--

At the outskirts of Tokyo-2 an army deployed from unusual vehicles, they literally looked like flying boxes. The soldiers wore dark-silver uniforms with light armor plates and sturdy helmets with dark visors. They were armed with weapons which didn't look like anything any man had seen before, yet they were held like fire arms. In the city no one knew where this threat came from and panic began to spread, as if Third Impact hadn't been enough.

Touji Suzuhara was with Hikari when this event began to take place and found himself caught in the ensuing chaos. He was whole again, when Third Impact began he was missing his left arm and leg, but when he woke up he was healed, amazingly so was his little sister. It seemed that whatever happened in that madness gave them another chance at life. Now it seemed as if fate was working against them once more, not only that he didn't have any news on Shinji or even The Red Devil as he still called Asuka, but now someone wanted to raise the town of the face of the Earth.

As the soldiers entered the town and opened fire on anyone who moved starting with the edges of town and working their way to it's middle. A large number of 5 meter tall machines began to land all over the town engaging the soldiers which weren't equipped to face such enemies. What was even stranger was the fact that both enemies seemed to utilize A.T. fields. Of course no one noticed that while trying to run for their lives.

Several transports began to land in the center of the town, bulky ships with four engines that came out of nowhere. From them came out people that began picking up the scared townsfolk. Touji pulled Hikari to one of them got her on board and he ran to find his sister, whoever these people were, they were trying to help them and they didn't fire at anything except for the soldiers that attacked first. It was easy to make out the good guys from the others, despite the fact that they didn't seem to have a specific design for their war machines. They did have the same symbols decorating them. A sword with two wings and Sanctuary written under it.

Toji found his sister in the streets threatened by one of the dark-silver invaders. Just as he was about to shot her one of the machines impaled the soldier with a long lance and then turned towards them."Are you two alright? You better run to a transport, we can't protect you people and fight these guys effectively at the same time. Now go!"Touji didn't wait for the man to finish, he was already running with his sister in his arms towards the transports.

Then he saw the most frightening thing: what seemed like a red and black Eva unit which was carrying Unit-01 behind it. It hovered for some time then seemed to open fire on something outside his line of sight. It was clearly on their side otherwise it would have shot the transports in the center of the town. A little hope flickered in his mind, maybe these people would know something about Shinji.

To be continued...

A/N: Well, this is the second chapter and I think I'm getting the hand at this formating thing on this site (even though it still gives me a head ache). I tried to make this a quick update, but the next one might come a bit later than this one. If you like the story, or it makes you raise an eyebrow at it or on the other hand you out right hate it, then leave a review or send me a PM, I like to know what my readers think about my story and some criticism might help me improve more or less.

Oh, and don't say that John is a "gary-stu" or what ever it was called, because you have no idea what I have planned for the man.


	3. Chapter 3

Evangelion: Continuum

Chapter 3:When the walls crack

By: Daetor

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to this story or the characters, I'm just obsessed by it. I'm writing this because I want to and no other reasons, I'm not getting paid or anything. Gainax owns this stuff and they can sue me if they don't like what I did here.(Though I hope they don't)

A week had passed after Third Impact, on Earth everything was getting back to normal. The destruction of Tokyo-2 was covered up, it was stated that it was destroyed during Third Impact, no one believed it to be otherwise. SEELE pulled the strings of humanity to reach it's twisted goals once more, their initial plan might have failed, but that didn't mean that they were defeated. No, it just meant that they had to use more brutal maneuvers, still there was something on which they didn't plan.

A new enemy had appeared out of nowhere, and it ruined their plans twice all ready. Sanctuary... the word angered them, the sword with wings, the symbol of an enemy thought long dead, now had risen from it's ashes as threat greater than they imagined. It had denied them the keys to their plans and it had hidden them well. It was their fault as well and they knew it, but they would wait for now, and attempt to catch their enemy in the open. They had time and their enemy would have to make another move sooner or later, moment in which they would change things.

Meanwhile things were silent in Sanctuary, the people rescued from Tokyo-2 were given new homes and a chance to a new life, a better life. The same happened to those rescued directly from the LCL sea, the former NERV technicians and the JSSDF soldiers. Amongst them there were a few which were surprised to be alive, one was Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, the second was non-other than agent Ryoji Kaji, both who had their own reasons to believe they were supposed to be dead. The first because he didn't think that anything could stop Third Impact once it started that way the second because he died before it began.

They had no idea why they were alive, but one man knew the answers, but for now he refused to give them to anyone. He awaited the final guest to this conference that had to take place, Shinji Ikari, who was still unconscious in his hospital bed. During this time, Asuka had been at Shinji's side as often as she could, coming to terms with her own feelings, especially after seeing some of his memories. She now knew that he loved her, and realized that she did to, but she was only half-aware of it. Accepting your own feelings was difficult, but after Third Impact she knew that things couldn't stay the same, she had to change, even if it was one step at a time.

In the mean time she got used to the area in which she now lived, met up with Hikari, Toji and even Kensuke, knowing that Shinji would need some time to get on his feet again once he would wake up. His friends would help and she needed Hikari's support more than ever. Though things were somewhat better, especially with Kaji returning from the dead so surprisingly. Misato was all over him not believing her eyes when John brought them together. He insisted that they lived in the same house as he did, the enormous villa could be home for three families and he barely made use of it.

He gave them the upmost room for 'strategic reasons' he answered when he was questioned, no one pressed the issue. Asuka got used to the house and she found it quite unusual, it wasn't obvious at first sight, but some things were missing. For example, on one particular day she discovered that it was quite cold outside, yet the large house was always warm and there were no trace of heaters anywhere. That and other details bothered her, why would that man have such a large house if he rarely spent time in it.

It seemed that there was a great mystery around the rather old but very young looking John. Still the local populace didn't seem to notice and they always greeted him with respect, the kind you show to someone who saved your life. Still when questioned no one would answer, everyone agreeing that if he didn't tell you himself, then it's better to wait until he did. Though a rumor did reach the new guests, John was also known as the Founder, what ever that meant...

--

Asuka made her way to the hospital yet again, no one reacted in any way to her passing on the street, but in the first day she had been watched curiously by some of the younger inhabitants. That's before even they were cautioned by others that it was impolite to stare at new arrivals and to leave her alone. It surprised her that she blended in so easily, but that wasn't important at the moment. If anyone had a problem with her she could solve it, no thug could take her on.

As always she went to Shinji's room, the receptionist never asked questions for some reasons, if you did have questions for her though, she answered them before you could ask them. It was one of those things that was out of place around here, like the fact that the town was completely different from anything she'd ever heard of before. There were no products from home, always completely different ones, which were usually much healthier or just tasted or felt better than the usual stuff.

Asuka didn't waste her time thinking about this detail for the moment, there would be enough time for that after Shinji woke up. Though it would probably be confusing for him, she had time to get used to this place, to understand herself and how she felt. Shinji on the other hand would wake up with Third Impact on his mind and it would be stupid to think that he wouldn't feel guilty for it, it was hard to admit it, but he WAS at the center of it all. Even if he rejected Instrumentality in the end, he wouldn't see things so well.

The Second Child knew all to well these things, because in the past week she had more insights on his mind. The nightmares from his distant past had been replaced by new ones involving her dead at most times. The scenes from them were real horrors, but she found a way to drive them away, she could somehow shove away his nightmares by placing her palm over his forehead and focusing on warmth. She would then feel her palm becoming warm and she could feel him relax in his sleep, whenever that happened she relaxed as well. Shinji was important, despite all the curses and bad language the German girl abused him with, he had always been important to her. It only took the end and rebirth of the world for her to realize that, fact which made her feel stupid.

As before Shinji was sleeping peacefully, he didn't have any nightmares yesterday and Asuka hoped he wouldn't have any today either. Maybe he would wake up today, maybe, but there was something else she could try. It was logical enough to assume that if she could reach his mind and see his dreams even influence them then maybe she could send a message to him. With each passing day Sarah was more worried about his chances of recovering from the coma, Asuka wasn't going to let that happen, not when she was finally able to admit to herself that she was wrong about him.

So she sat near his bed and placed her palm over his forehead then began to focus. Again she felt the familiar sensation of warmth in her palm, but she focused even harder this time. Obviously she didn't know what would happen or what she would say to Shinji, but if this worked, at least he would wake up. They could deal with the rest after that.

After a few minutes Shinji suddenly rose with his eyes wide open looking around in shock, his gaze landed upon the redheaded girl who seemed to be fighting with a migraine all of a sudden."Asuka? Is that you? Where am I?"he asked looking around again realizing that he was in some sort of hospital, but it seemed more pleasant than any hospital he'd seen before.

"Yeah, it's me, good morning, you've been sleeping for a week..." she said waiting for the words to sink in before saying anything else."A week?" Shinji asked in disbelief, he felt too good to have been unconscious that long, he didn't feel tired or dizzy as he was used to be. Not to mention that his body wasn't aching or complaining because of the movement, he should have been stiff as a board after this long. Adding to that he didn't have any needles in his arms which usually delivered the contents of some IV bag in his blood, he didn't even feel hungry. If possible he felt better than before, maybe even stronger, but he couldn't quite place the sensation.

"What's this?" Shinji asked looking at something tied to his left wrist, it seemed to be pulsing and it felt warm."That? That's what these people use instead of IV bags, instead of fluids in your blood that thing delivers raw energy in your body. From what the good doctor was wiling to tell me, that thing is a miniature S2 engine."

"A miniature S2?!"Shinji asked with a shocked expression on his face."That's impossible, they were barely able to put them in Eva's, how did they manage to make one so small?"The boy stops suddenly and looks at the girl near his bed, wondering why she was there, that and where there was for that matter, to say the least his mind wasn't a place anyone would want to be in at the moment."I'm being stupid..."he muttered.

"It's ok, you were probably expecting to wake up on a beach all alone with a large beast howling somewhere..."Asuka trailed of when she realized that she unconsciously told him the beginning of one of his nightmares from his coma."H-how did you know..." Shinji said with a shocked expression on his face the nightmare having replayed many times in his mind, he hadn't forgotten it, still the fact that Asuka seemed to now about it was all too shocking. He wished that she could understand him some more in the past but he didn't imagine that she would be able to retell his nightmares one day.

"I have to tell you something Shinji... you're probably going to hate me afterwards, but it's your mind and you have to know..."she was cut of by him "I'd never hate you Asuka...I couldn't..."

"You might reconsider after this..."she said giving him a guilty look."Let me say this and don't interrupt me until I'm finished ok?"After seeing the boy nod she continued."It started right after that thing attacked us on the beach, I saw flashes, memories from your mind and I found out a lot of things. I... know about your past, about your mother and Unit-01, how your father left you when you needed him the most, I felt what you felt back then and more... I.. I've seen what happened during the 15th and then what happened with Kaworu, I know about Rei, but above all that...I know that..."

"I love you."Shinji said with a surprising amount of confidence in his voice."Yes..."Asuka replied, somewhat surprised, she realized that her shock must be evident on her face because the boy started laughing."What?" she asked somewhat annoyed."Nothing it's just that you said that you knew and yet you were so shocked..."

"Well...I'd never thought that you'd actually say it to me, especially knowing how intimidated you felt around me."She said."I'm done running away Asuka, and I wasn't going to wait for the Fourth Impact to tell you this. I love you and I doubt anything will change that, I don't mind the fact that you know about my past, I think it's better than trying to stutter an explanation about it, I don't have your confidence, it will probably take me a long time to get comfortable talking about that."

"Aren't you afraid that I might hurt you?" Asuka asked."I'm afraid, yes, but I'll still stand by you no matter what you say to me or how much you try to drive me away. I rejected Instrumentality, knowing all to well that it would lead to pain again, but I understand now, pain is a part of life. Plus I understand what my mother said to me"

"That anywhere can be Heaven as long as you have the will to live."The red-head finished for him, Shinji simply nodded then smiled."You drove the nightmares away..."He stopped waiting for a reaction from the girl."Yes, you could tell?" The boy looked up at her, staring in her eyes before speaking."Yes I could tell, I could feel you to some extent. Thanks... for being there for me."

"I...I thought I lost you for awhile, I didn't know what to do, things changed so suddenly, you have no idea what's been going on, but..."

"I know."Shinji said with a low voice and a determined look in his eyes."There's a war out there and we have no idea what's going on. Kaworu or Adam or whoever he really was explained enough for me to get that. I have his power now, as impossible as it may seem, but I'm sure that I used it to stop that thing, my 

own AT field... There's more to AT fields that just plain shields... what worries ne is that you've been pulled into this as well, you have Lilith's power, that's how you were able to contact my mind... it makes sense if you look at it, but why us..."

"Great, so we're stuck over our heads in who knows what mess because those two decided they could go and die while leaving all of their problems on our heads... just brilliant!" Asuka fumed at the thought.

"Maybe..."Shinji stated in low voice."Anyway, let's forget about that for now. We've had enough fights to last us for a life time. I want to get out of here, but, before that I want to know what happened outside, did anyone return? You've been awake this week, so, could you please fill me in, please Asuka, I have to know."

"Ok, it's a long story though..."Asuka replied before telling him what happened during the last week. She started with how John saved the two of them on the beach, then took them to this place called Sanctuary, which for all they knew wasn't exactly on Earth. Then she told him how the next day refugees began to arrive and amongst them was Toji, who had all his limbs back, Kensuke, who started thinking that war isn't such a good thing after all, Hikari who was now officially Toji's girlfriend, thought which made the red-head nauseous and caused Shinji to chuckle a bit. Then she told him how John brought in Misato on the very next day and how she came practically clinging to Kaji, who was all too happy with the arrangement. John, told them that they rescued everyone from the remains of the Geo-front before they could drown in the LCL sea that formed in the hole. Apparently the LCL was breathable to some extent at that time so that's why people actually survived. She then told him how everyone was relocated in Sanctuary and she began explaining about this place which was so unusual. It took two hours to finish, time in which Shinji simply nodded from time to time while listening intently.

"So that's it, this all so confusing, but at least we'll get some explanations soon, or at least that's what John said, that he'll wait until you're awake."Asuka said, slightly out of breath."Thank God..."Shinji muttered, then said "So I didn't exactly kill everyone... they came back, just like mother said they would. I guess I shouldn't have doubted her... Asuka? About Instrumentality... did you get to see you mother as well?"

"Huh? Oh yea, but I was a bit overwhelmed to actually talk to her as myself. You probably had the strongest sense of self at that time. The rest of us were pretty much taken by surprise in that situation. Don't blame yourself for it, if I would have been more understanding, Third Impact might not have started at all..."

"Let's forget about it for now." Shinji said."We'll have to deal with all of this again when that John will explain everything, somehow I know he'll explain all we need to know, maybe a lot more..."

"Yea, I think so too."She replied.

"Now all we have to do is burry our past and move forward, we have to let go of the past, the fact that you know about mine actually makes it easier. Would you... want to talk about yours? I think it will help." Shinji said looking Asuka in the eyes, she didn't see pity in those eyes, only love and that inner strength he seemed to display only for her.

"Ok, I think it's only fair, I saw most of your past, you have the right to know about mine. Plus... I think that you might actually understand me since our pasts are so similar..." Then she began telling him, how her mother lost her mind after a contact experiment with Unit-02, how she later committed suicide after ignoring her and replacing her with a doll. She told him how her father remarried right after her mother's death as if it meant nothing to him, how she swore to never cry again.

After that they continued talking about what happened in their lives, truly realizing how similar they actually were, how they were, opposite sides of the same coin. Both of them had thought that they were worthless, but had opposite approaches to the problem. It was incredible how similar their lives truly were, even their fathers were similar, uncaring bastards, for once both of them found someone who could understand the other trough each other. They talked all morning until the afternoon, at about 3 o'clock they were done, for now, there were still many issues left in their respective pasts, but they knew that now they had someone who could understand and who cared.

"You know... there's still something I haven't apologized for."Asuka said.

"You don't have to apologize for anything, I told you, I love you and I've already forgiven you." Shinji said.

Then Asuka leaned in as if she wanted to whisper something into his ear, but then she tilted her head and began kissing him on the lips. Shinji was taken by surprise but began kissing back, loosing himself in the kiss, feeling her smell, tasting her lips. It seemed to last forever and then it was over and she was looking him in the eyes."You know what? I think I love you too." Asuka whispered.

"That.. that was... incredible." Shinji said.

"Yea... where did you learn to kiss like that?" She asked.

"Misato, with her adult kiss, you know in the elevator, I thought you saw that one as well." Shinji said.

"Oh, right I remember now, I didn't really think about that one, I was pretty much shocked when I saw it."She replied."You should get changed, look at the time, we stayed to much around here. I'll go talk to the nurses and get your release papers. Then I'll show you the town, trust me you have to see this place."

"I'm looking forward to it."Shinji said, honestly smiling.

--

A few minutes later both Shinji and Asuka came out trough the hospital entrance and Asuka lead Shinji trough town. The boy was amazed by this place to say the least, especially since there were seasons here and not the permanent summer which plagued Earth. It was doubtful that they were on the same planet, that or they were in a very large geo-front, one which supported weather changes in it's systems. This town wasn't a fortress like Tokyo-3, it was a normal town with people going about their business, it was awkward that they spoke Japanese, and even German as Asuka noticed during her stay here.

They walked trough the entire town, and no one bothered the young couple, some people actually seemed happy to see them, but they never stopped to talk. Shinji, like the red-head which was holding his right arm noticed that something was out of place around here. Unlike her he realized much faster what that was, he could feel it. Every native of this place seemed to have an AT field, a USABLE one. These people probably used them in day to day life, those AT fields weren't exactly strong compared to Eva's for example, but they were usable.

"These people use AT fields." Shinji said while they were walking away from town, the German girl having decided that they walked around town for long enough and that they should get back home and let Misato and Kaji in on the big news.

"What do you mean?"

"That's what's going on."Shinji said. "These people can use AT fields, and they use them in day to day life. Of course they don't have anything near what we have, but they can still do some things. I can feel those fields, probably a side effect from receiving that power."

"That would make sense, it would also explain why they seem so different from normal people. With such an advantage their society must have become quite different from that back home, it would explain some strange details I saw, like some jewels with perfect cuts, no tool can make cuts like that, but you can't say the same about an AT field." Asuka pinpointed. "Well that's home."

"Wow, we're going to live there? Is that man insane? That house is enormous!"Shinji said looking at the large villa.

"I have no idea, but who cares, at least we don't have fight for the bathroom in the morning, there's one on each floor."Asuka said as they entered the house. She then showed him around the house and as they looked around they found a note on the kitchen table:

Out with Kaji, don't wait up, we'll visit Shinji in the morning. Love Misato

"Well I guess some things never change."Shinji said as Asuka rolled her eyes."Wait till she finds out that you're out of the hospital, she'll probably put you back in with her hug. She nearly killed me when she first saw me."

Shinji laughed."It's good to know that she's the same old Misato. It's good to know that she finally gets along with Kaji."

"I'm more happy that we can get along." She said starting another kiss, longer than the first one, forgetting about the world around them and about any problems in it. They were lost again in their own world. When in was over she collapsed in his arms, yet to her surprise Shinji held her as if she didn't weigh anymore than a feather.

"I could get used to this..." Asuka said letting Shinji support all of her weight."When did you get taller than me? And how come you're so strong?"The boy thought about it for awhile but couldn't reach an answer, the change was pretty sudden, it must have happened during the last week, while he was unconscious. Then he decided to try something, with the slightest of movements he picked Asuka up and cradled her in his arms before she could say anything.

"Come on, I'll take you to your room, you're tired and you need to rest. Waking me up and spending all the day like this must have taken it's toll on you." Shinji said as he went up the stairs, he took Asuka to her room and laid her in her bed, he left after one final kiss and went to his own room. It was right next to hers and like hers it already had clothes in the closet and other essentials.

So Shinji changed in some pajamas and tried to go to sleep.

--

It was 2 in the morning and Shinji was still awake in his bed staring at his ceiling, he didn't feel tired at all, at least not physically, but his mind was requesting a break. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about what happened during the day and what happened before that. He understood that he had all of the power the first angel had within himself now. He also understood that it was an enormous power, but there was one problem, he didn't really know how to use it. The boy decided to try something, he concentrated on the sensation of expanding an AT field, just like in Unit-01, he tried to make a small field in his palm.

Surely enough, a blue octagonal field appeared above his palm, Shinji then changed the size of the field until it covered the whole ceiling and the room was flooded by a blue light. He then tried something he didn't think about in Unit-01, he tried to bend the field, which changed it's shape accordingly to his thoughts. So the field could be folded like a paper, it wasn't much, but that meant that you could create shapes with it like origami. Maybe there was more about these fields than Shinji had imagined, or anyone involved with the Eva's for that fact.

Then he heard crying sounds, it came from really close and the boy knew that the only person close enough to hear crying was Asuka. He didn't wonder why or how and decided to go to her, he had promised to be there for her. So he got out of his room and entered her room after discreetly knocking on the door. The girl was sleeping, but she was crying because of something she was dreaming. It was obvious that while she was able to drive away his nightmares, she couldn't do the same with her own.

Shinji went to her bed and began stroking her hair while whispering in her ear. Asuka began to calm down a bit but then she got a hold of Shinji's hand and wouldn't let go. There's no way I could get free without waking her up, so I might as well make myself comfortable here, it's going to be a long night. Shinji thought to himself as he laid on the side of the bed and to his surprise he finally fell asleep.

--

Asuka woke up next morning after a surprisingly good night, ever since that first night she had always slept like hell because of awful nightmares. The first thing she noticed was that she was hearing a rhythmic beating which was hypnotic, it sounded just like a heart beat, but it was a different sensation from the one you have when you hear your own heart beat or the recording of others. It didn't take long for her mind to realize where she was or what she was sleeping on, better said who.

Asuka was sleeping with her head on Shinji's chest and she had her arms wrapped around him holding him in a tight embrace, while he had his right arm around her waist and his left one on her right shoulder. If this would have happened 2 weeks ago before Third Impact, Shinji would have been in a life or death situation, now though the red-head was content to watching him sleep with a serene smile on his face and considered that she could go back to sleep herself. That was before noticing the figure near the bed which seemed to be waiting for something.

She looked up and saw John standing there, but his expression was completely unexpected, she had expected worry, disappointment or something like that. So she wasn't expecting the calm happy expression on his face as if he was sincerely happy with what was going on. It was one of those rare moments in life when Asuka Langley Sohryu was at a loss of words, John didn't fail to notice this so he decided to speak first.

"Morning, did you sleep well?"He asked without a teasing tone.

"Surprisingly well, but what are you doing in my room?" Asuka asked."I thought you were the polite kind of person that waited until you got permission."

"Normally I am, but today I had to drop by to tell you two some things. Do you think it's safe to wake him up? Or should we wait until he wakes up on his own?" John asked."You see I'm in a bit of a hurry so we should get this over with."

"Ok, I'll wake him up, wait a second." The girl said then turned to Shinji."Shinji, wake up, it's morning."

"Ok, ok Asuka..."The boy replied slowly opening his eyes and seeing the position he was in, then the fact that they had an audience."Good morning Asuka." He said then yawned, not really knowing what to make of the situation.

"I'm sorry to disturb you two like this but I have a lot of work today in preparation for tomorrow. So I'll get to the first reasons of my visit."John said with a calm tone and continued with a slightly amused one."You should make sure that Misato or Kaji don't find out about this, otherwise the discussions arising from this combined with the teasing will kill you. Now I know that nothing happened and I have no objections against you two sleeping in the same bed as long as nothing happens, that or you get married and it's not my business anymore. I hope I'm perfectly clear with this."

Both teens nodded, slightly blushing at the idea of marriage, though it would be a lie to say that they weren't considering it. John was truly happy for the two, he knew all to well what they have been trough and he knew that they deserved to be happy and he was going to ensure that they would be happy. Of course, many choices would be left to them, but he could still make a difference in this situation. At the moment all three remained silent, thinking about what just happened and what had been said.

"Ok, now I doubt that either of those two will be awake in the next two or three hours."John continued."Oh, and to prevent them from finding out, use the balcony to move between rooms. That and lock the doors to your rooms from the inside, ruffle your respective beds so they look slept in and there's no way to find out."He chuckled and then switched to a serious tone. "Now starting with tomorrow, most of the refugees will be given orientation courses so that they can find their place in Sanctuary. I'll bring you two and a few others to a special meeting and I'll explain what I know and why that creature attacked you two a week ago. Also, I have no objections against practicing to use the light of the soul, or AT fields as you call it. I'll give you a hint those things can generate or absorb heat, so you can cook real well with them, amongst other things. Just don't hurt anyone and don't strain yourselves, you don't have any real experience with them and if you overdo it, you can kill yourself."

"So you're saying that we can both generate AT fields?"Asuka asked slightly surprised, but judging by the recent experiences, she knew it wasn't impossible, she was just unable to make the connection between an AT field and scanning someone's memories.

"Yes you can both use the light of the soul. The name AT field is just so inappropriate if you ask me. You'll see why in time, I'll teach you both how to use your powers and some useful details about them, but more on that tomorrow. Enjoy your day and you could even celebrate tonight, maybe I'll be there as well. See you later you two."John finished then left closing the door behind him. The two looked at the door as if checking to see if he was coming back then kissed.

"Now that's what I call a good morning call." Asuka said after breaking the kiss."So should we get up or should we sleep some more?"

"I'm ready to wake up." Shinji said."I hope you're not mad at me."Instead of answering Asuka kissed him again."Why should I be mad at you? Some things never change..., but then you wouldn't be Shinji, my sweet, invincible, idiot Shinji."

With that said they both got up and went to separate bathrooms to take a shower.

--

Twenty minutes later Shinji was all ready in the kitchen, trying to prepare breakfast, bacon and eggs sounded nice for the moment since the kitchen seemed to have products more adequate for a western meal. That wasn't to surprising since Asuka had been living in the house for a week, and even Shinji realized that John wasn't exactly a Japanese name, it sounded English to him. Though he was in store for a surprise when he began to read the labels of different products in the fridge or in various cupboards.

It was normal stuff that you'd find in just about any kitchen, that was not what surprised him. He was surprised by the fact that he could read those labels even though they were written in a language he had never studied before. Sure the letters were normal, but he did notice that the language was unknown, or 

at least it should have been. Shinji just shrugged it of and decided that he would ask John about it in their meeting tomorrow, this was a free day and he was going to enjoy it.

He wasn't surprised to find what looked like beer cans in the fridge. They weren't what Misato usually drank, but it was obvious that she enjoyed this foreign beer just as much since the fridge had enough of it. Shinji decided to try out what John suggested, even if the idea of cooking by using an AT field never occurred to him before, why not try it? So Shinji extended the field just as he did the night before, then he shaped it as he desired, forming a pan large enough to cook breakfast for him, Asuka, Misato and Kaji all at once.

It took him less than 3 minutes to start radiating the necessary heat from the field and he was soon cooking without any utensils, using the ingredients themselves. He couldn't believe how easy it was for him to manipulate the field, he just had to think and the field would behave as his thoughts commanded. So in a few minutes breakfast was ready and on it's respective plates. As soon as he laid the final plate a pair of arms came from behind wrapping themselves around his waist. At first he tensed at the touch but then realizing who the owner of the arms was he turned in the embrace and found himself gazing at a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Hey, breakfast's ready." He said, finally managing to break away from her eyes and the spell they placed him under. "I already saw that, that was one impressive way to cook breakfast, when did you learn to do that?"

"I tried stuff like that last night." Shinji said."Also John's suggestion sounded fun, but it did leave me a little dizzy."Before he could say anything else Asuka kissed him again pulling him closer, Shinji was absolutely drunk after breaking the kiss."You know it would have been a lot better if we were able to do this from the beginning."

"Yea, the days would have gone a lot better if we realized that we were like this earlier." The German girl replied."Let's eat before Misato comes in and starts drinking while making out with Kaji, it really ruins your appetite."

The two of them were soon seated near each other and eating. Shinji noticed that the food tasted better than he was expecting it to. It was either related to the new conditions or the food itself was better than what he used to cook back in Tokyo-3.

They didn't even eat half of their breakfast when a very sleepy Kaji entered the kitchen. He paid no attention to the two and made himself coffee. Meanwhile the two children chuckled at the situation and Asuka couldn't wait to see his face when he realized what was out of place. Finally he set himself at the table before a plate and took a sip from his mug.

"Morning Asuka, morning Shinji.."

"Morning." The teens replied in unison, one of the after effects of their sync training.

"Morning Shinji?!" Kaji repeated with a shocked tone after spiting a mouth full of coffee over the table."When did you get back?"

"Yesterday." Shinji said."When Asuka brought me home you and Misato were out, I guess we fell asleep before you got back."

"We haven't even noticed..."The man said looking incredulously at Shinji as if he might disappear any second now."How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, no actually I'm better than before." The boy honestly replied."Though I'm in a less awkward situation than you are. Everyone knew for sure that you were dead, so it must be pretty weird for you."

"Are you sure that you're Shinji Ikari?" Kaji asked.

"What do you mean am I Shinji Ikari? Of course I am who else could I be?" The boy asked confused by the strange and seemingly serious question.

"I'm not so sure, you seem too confident to be him. The Shinji I knew wouldn't speak about something so serious without stuttering even once. Not to mention that you don't look scared or depressed, which is fairly strange, not to mention that you're a bit taller than you should be and you don't look as skinny as you're supposed to be."

"The old Shinji died in Third Impact." Shinji calmly stated."I'm done with running away, I promised I wouldn't and I've found a reason to live." He turned and kissed Asuka on the cheek while putting his left arm around her shoulders. "I still have a long way to go, but I'm not going to be the same person that killed the whole world because he was afraid of pain."

Kaji was in a state of shock at the moment, he had seen the secrets at NERV, he had seen giant monsters piloted by children sent against other giant monsters, he even died and then somehow came back to life, but all that couldn't prepare him for the shock of what he had heard and seen right now. Shinji putting his arm around Asuka who proceeded to lean on him without even one insult, just after hearing the boy's statements.

The two teens observing the older man's reaction to their behavior started laughing. They stopped fairly quickly when Misato also entered the kitchen. She went straight to the fridge, looking like a zombie from a pathetic horror movie, she then proceeded to grab a beer sit on a chair near Kaji, then drink it in one gulp. After her trademark morning shout she gave Kaji a small peck on the cheek then noticed that he was staring at something.

She looked at the two teens and blinked a couple of times as if to check if they were truly there. Asuka was now leaning on Shinji who had his arms around her, they both seemed relaxed, but they were barely containing their laughter. Their guardian had a bewildered expression on her face as if she saw a ghost or a disturbing dream, then she looked at her beer. "I think I really should cut down on my drinking, I'm starting to see things."

"No, I'm seeing it too." Kaji said."So if you're seeing it and I'm seeing it, then it must be real."

"Would you two stop staring like idiots!?"Asuka suddenly said with her usual ranting tone."Mein Gott, you look like you've seen something walk out of a grave! Stop that and start eating!"

"Ok we now know for sure that she's Asuka Langley Sohryu. So that means he's really Shinji!"Misato said."My God Shinji when did you come here, why didn't you tell us anything? How come you haven't said anything yet?!"

"Because I was waiting for you to finish and you didn't give me a chance to talk." The boy replied."I got here yesterday. We haven't told you anything because you weren't home, and we were probably sound asleep by the time you came back."

"Ok, but that still doesn't explain what I'm seeing right now." Misato said.

"Well ,let's see, what do you see Misato?" Asuka asked.

"You do realize that you're in Shinji's arms right? The weak, cowardly and so on Shinji. Right?" Misato said trying to sort the mess in her head."Yeah, is there some law against it?" Asuka retorted."What's your problem Misato? Are you perhaps jealous? Or does the fact that I'm content and happy piss you of?! Well..." Asuka trailed of when she felt Shinji hold her a little tighter."Ah forget it... sorry I snapped at you." The German girl muttered before looking away.

"No I'm sorry Asuka, it's just that this is so unexpected, you always seemed ready to kill Shinji before, so you must understand that this comes as a shock. Shinji's new behavior isn't helping either, I mean look at him he's not even blushing!" Misato said.

"Whatever, I'm done eating." Asuka said then left from the table not before kissing Shinji on the cheek.

"I'm loosing my mind..." The purple haired woman said.

Shinji sighed looking at the two."You should try to get used to this since neither of us is going to back down. I don't know if you can understand this, but we're... I don't know soulmates I think. We're opposite sides of the same coin, now more than ever. We both need each other, that's how it is."

Shinji turned to leave, when he heard Kaji's voice."Do you love her?"

"More than anything in the world."Shinji replied before exiting the room.

--

The morning had begun in an awkward way, to say the least, but it progressed in a much more normal tone afterwards. Misato wasn't displeased by the change, quite the opposite, but for her it was sudden and it seemed impossible. Of course she had no idea about what happened during Instrumentality and afterwards, no one told her about what Shinji did after they had awoken or why. She had no way of knowing that Asuka saw so many of his memories or that she had conflicting feelings about him long before that tragic series of events. The boy, after a short discussion with the fiery red-head reached the conclusion that their guardian deserved an explanation, even though neither of them were truly willing to talk about what happened.

So they all gathered in the living room down stairs (the house had two living rooms, one down stairs and one at the first floor plus small bars at the second and third). It wasn't really Misato's business, it didn't matter what happened, but she wasn't this rational about it. She didn't want her two charges falling into a fake relationship that would hurt both of them, they had suffered enough all ready, she was partly to blame for that. Kaji on the other hand was well aware that Asuka was dead serious, otherwise she wouldn't get involved, she wasn't one to play games and she always tried to get what she wanted, he had personal experience about the last part.

"Ok, we'll explain this only once, so you better pay attention because I will definitely not repeat myself." Asuka said pushed forward by her temper."Yes, we love each other, yes this is sudden, but we both had feelings long before this happened. We just didn't understand each other well enough and we couldn't see how similar we really are. Third Impact changed that, we had a lot of insight at our minds and feelings and we were confronted with our own mistakes. Let's say that we've received some gifts, and mine gave me a rather big insight into Shinji's mind. I found out more than I should have, but it's for the better, even if I got to know him in an inappropriate way. After that, I truly could understand him, and I knew that he would understand me, because we are the same, just different sides of the same coin."

Asuka paused and squeezed Shinji's hand, he all ready knew that it was his turn."I never hated Asuka, I took all she threw at me because I all ready loved her, now it's much stronger. Then, I was using her for support, but now we support each other. I'm sure you're worried about this, but we'll be all right, we never wanted anything more in out entire life. She understands me and I understand her, no one else can do that because no one else has been through what we've been. Misato, you may have had our files, but those didn't tell everything about us, did you know for instance that both of our mothers were trapped in our respective Evas?"

Misato shook her head, this was definitely awkward, but what they said did make sense, and she knew from her own experience that the lack of understanding can make a relationship impossible."Sorry you two, this is just difficult to digest if you know what I mean. Then again, some good might come of this." She finished grinning mischievously.

"Don't you have anything better to do than try and tease us?"Asuka asked rolling her eyes.

"Not really, but I guess I could save it for later. Now I have a party to plan, we're going to celebrate Shinji's return and the fact that we survived Third Impact because Shinji rejected instrumentality." The boy groaned at the idea. "I guess we'll need more food. When will it start and how many people will you call?"

"Hmm at about nine I think, as for how many, well this house is pretty big, I'll see how many we'll fit inside." The purple headed woman finished while rubbing her palms together in excitement.

"You do realize that this is not your house right?" Shinji asked."Yea, but the man said that we could throw a party any time we wanted as long as he was invited as well." Misato replied.

"Well, I should go get some shopping done... Though I'll need some money for that" He grumbled.

"I'll handle that, John gave me a credit card, or at least that's what I think it is..." Asuka said as she got up and pulled him out of the couch."Come on lazy, I don't want to waste all day with this."

With that said the two teens rushed out the door leaving behind a pair of rather confused adults behind.

--

Toji Suzuhara had a happy life at the moment, he had a caring girlfriend, his sister was healthy and happy, he miraculously recovered from his rather permanent injuries, he was living safely. Still he was worried, one of his friends was in a coma in the hospital and there was no news about him so far, he had visited a couple of times and he was on his way with Hikari to do so again. He had other worries as well, the town in which he awoke after whatever happened, Third Impact apparently, had been destroyed, but a bunch of unknown military personnel rescued most of the people and offered them new homes or gave them the possibility to return back to Earth. They were in a place called Sanctuary and most had decided to stay, his family included. There was no news about what they'll be doing here though, and from what he could understand, this place didn't exactly offer you the same kind of school as back on Earth.

Still, he wasn't going to let these things get to him, especially since they've all been announced that they'll receive orientation courses starting the following day. The courses weren't given earlier to allow the refugees a chance to recover after the events that led to their rescue and to get used to the new environment. Those that lived before Second Impact were incredibly happy with the new turn of events, this place had seasons and they were currently experiencing a soft autumn.

"What's up Toji?" Hikari's voice brought the boy back to the real world from his train of thoughts. They were walking in a surprisingly empty street towards the hospital where they knew Shinji was held. The cold weather forced them to wear thicker clothes and they were also walking very close to one another, sharing a bit of body heat.

"I was just thinking about all that happened." He replied honestly, of all the people in the world, he knew that Hikari would listen to him.

"Don't worry about it to much. We'll be fine, I'm sure that Shinji will recover as well, he has to, otherwise I don't know what will happen to Asuka..." Hikari said concerned for her friend, she had seen Asuka in a pretty bad shape and she knew that she was worried for Shinji, though she had no way of knowing how bad it was.

"I dunno, though Shinji's probably better of without her." Toji said remembering Asuka's behavior all too well, though he would be able to get over it for Hikari, he couldn't just change in a few weeks. Their discussion was cut short when a laugh came from in front of them around the right corner and a voice soon followed, both of them realizing that it belonged to a certain German girl.

"I can't believe that no one was surprised when we put our stuff on an AT field then walked out the store dragging the stuff behind us. You're learning way too fast to use these things, though I shouldn't be too surprised, you were a natural pilot as well."The voice said coming closer. Both of them stopped, wondering about whoever she could be talking about in such a relaxed manner. She seemed happy, fact which made Toji slightly angry, thinking that she really didn't give a damn about Shinji.

They both failed to hear the response from the other person as the steps came closer and they would both see who she was talking to.

"Well you are my Invincible Shinji." Asuka said just as they rounded the corner and she kissed the before mentioned boy who didn't seem to have the slightest of problems. The two stopped for a moment during the kiss and when they broke they were surprised by the sight before them and both blushed. Before them stood a severely blushing Hikari and Toji who's jaw would have hit the pavement if it could go that low. The fact that there seemed to be a pile of groceries and other stuff floating on a blue light didn't exactly help the matters.

"Um, hi?" Shinji said looking at the two and slowly commanding the filed to put everything on the ground for the moment. Hikari fainted at that moment, the pressure of the events and the shock caused by what she had seen being to much for her. Toji snapped his jaw shut and held Hikari not really knowing what to do.

"Snap out of it stooge! Lay her down and let me check on her!"Asuka commanded snapping Toji out of his thoughts. He reluctantly complied, letting go of Hikari and allowing Asuka to check on her.

"Don't worry, she knows what she's doing."Shinji said seeing the concern on his friends face but not daring make eye contact.

"Meh, she just fainted, that or she's very tired. You haven't done anything to her, have you stooge?"The red-head said not turning to look at Toji.

"Shut up devil-gi..."He trailed of looking at Shinji's face, he never got a death glare from him before and he wasn't exactly prepared.

"Anyway, I'll wake her up and calm her a bit." Asuka said ignoring Toji and placing her right palm over her friend's forehead. A soft red light began radiating of the palm, a few seconds later Hikari opened her eyes, looking right at Asuka, realizing she had her head in the other girls lap and the rest of the body on the pavement."Asuka? I had the weirdest dream... I saw you and Shinji kissing and there was a blue light behind you..."

The German girl sighed."Hikari, you weren't dreaming, Shinji woke up yesterday, but since you don't have a phone yet I couldn't call to let you know. I kind of forgot about everything around me for awhile."

"Oh, and you were really kissing him? Since when?" Hikari asked, feeling surprisingly calm despite all of this.

"Since when I found out he's such a good kisser."Asuka stated slightly blushing.

"Hm, you said I was so, so." Shinji said.

Hikari got on her feet and went to Toji then both of them turned to look at Shinji and Asuka who were arm in arm. The red-head was leaning on Shinji resting her head on his right shoulder, the boy looked as if there was nothing unusual about this. Both of them noticed that Shinji was taller than he should be and that he wasn't as skinny as they remembered.

"Man, out of all the girls in the world, why her?! I'm telling you, you're playing with the daughter of Lucifer!" Toji said with a look on his face as if he was preparing for a funeral."Ahem, are you trying to imply something stooge?" Asuka growled at the boy who proceeded to take a couple of steps back knowing all too well what Asuka was capable of.

"Toji! How could you say something like that?!" Hikari asked."Sorry, bad habits die hard and this is well, unexpected to say the least."He replied.

"Oh grow up!" Asuka said."It's not like this is any of your business! So what do you care? Some friend you are to Shinji."

"Asuka, forget it." Shinji said."We both agreed that we'd try to let people get used to this. You have to admit that for them it's pretty weird."

"Yea, but that doesn't mean I have to be nice to him, you're the only boy with which I'm nice."She said, Shinji simply smiled.

"Ok, ok I'm sorry." Toji said."I had no idea, though I still think that this won't end well... Anyway Shinji, how've you been? Why didn't you visit me at the hospital?"

"I couldn't face you Toji, not after what I did... or better said didn't do..."Shinji replied.

"Aw, come on man, I didn't hold that against you. Now it doesn't even matter anymore. See? I mean I'm all right."Toji said."What did you think? That I wouldn't forgive you or something? You couldn't have known that your father would do that. If anyone is to blame he is!"

"I know that now, but then, I was just afraid, I thought that you have probably been in terrible pain because of that thing. I just didn't know what to do... I ran away... again."Shinji replied not looking at Toji.

"Listen man, the only pain I felt was when I woke up after the incident. I was unconscious the whole time when the battle took place. So I honestly have no idea of what happened during it except what I've been told. So forget about it, there's no point in being depressed about this, it's over and you know it. Now let's get going. Do you need any help with those?"

"No I can handle them."Shinji said and he extended the AT field under what they bought that day. Everything began to float at about 50 cm above the ground while Toji and Hikari stared wide eyed at the scene."Wow that's so cool, how can you do that?" Toji asked.

"It's a gift, from someone who was a true friend in the end. To cut a long story short, I have the power of the first angel and Asuka has the power of the second one and let's say that it's quite a power."Shinji explained."Why don't you two drop by with us? Misato will invite you to the party anyway so this way we'll solve some of her problems." Asuka said.

"Ok let's go."Hikari said deciding to drop the fact that what she saw was unusual and simply spend time with her friends. She had heard a lot about the two former Eva pilots, so she could get used to this.

The four teens left heading towards John's villa. All of them chattering about what had happened and wondering about the future and what it would hold for them.

--

It was soon time for the party, as expected it was out of control in about an hour after it started. Despite the size of the house it was pretty crowded since Misato had invited a lot of NERV personnel. A lot of people were eager to come since they didn't have a real reason to celebrate in a long time. Also, this party held another meaning, it told everyone that things really did begin again and that they had a real chance at a normal life this time, that NERV was done for and they were glad to forget about it.

True to his word John was back home at 9 o clock without any delay happy to take part at the celebrations. He was now willing to answer any questions, but no one wanted to ask any. This wasn't the time for mysteries and troubles, it was a time for celebration and everyone wanted to have fun.

Many questioning glances were thrown towards the former Second and Third Children since their fights back in the days of Eva were quite legendary. Actually there were many bets regarding those, some said that Asuka would eventual murder Shinji or push him to commit suicide, that or he would kill the red-head in her sleep. Obviously no one expected this to happen, except for two people: John and Sarah, who was invited because she had befriended Misato and Kaji during the time in which Shinji was in a coma, also she occasionally dropped by at John's house.

Though the party was a lot of fun, Shinji found himself retreating in the balcony near his room pretty quickly. Though he had changed enormously during these last few days, he wasn't going to get used to this kind of activity too soon. It was quieter here and he didn't have to explain himself to anyone either, not to mention that a lot of people seemed to remember him since during Instrumentality, everyone that was part of it knew that he stopped it and wanted to thank him for it. He never considered himself a hero for that fact, it was his fault that it started in the first place, so he didn't think he was worthy of praise.

"It must be pretty tiresome for you."Asuka's voice came from behind as he felt her arms encircle his waist."I was pretty sure I'd find you here."

"I'm just not used to this kind of things yet."He said."Also, I don't think those people should thank me... Instrumentality wouldn't have begun in the first place if it wasn't for me."

"Listen Shinji, you're more worthy of those thanks than you think, because things happened as they did a lot of people got cured of all sorts of diseases. Some people are actually even younger than they were before this happened. In the end it was a good thing that things turned out like this, especially since everyone has returned from what John said, even people that died before it began. So, you did the right thing." She said leaning her head against his shoulder, always speaking in a soft calm voice.

Shinji turned to her and looked in her eyes, he knew that he could trust her, that she would always tell him the truth and her words gave him confidence. The boy knew that she snooped around to get that information because he felt bad."You know, there's only one thing they don't know, I would have never rejected Instrumentality if it wasn't for you. So they should thank you for coming into my life, otherwise they'd still be stuck in there."

"You're so sappy!"She said playfully."I know but this time it's true and you know it."

"I know..."

The two teens remained silent in the balcony the party going on without them, they sat there in silence, no words were needed between them. They both knew that in a way or another this wasn't over, that tomorrow they'd find more questions despite the answers they were promised. All of that didn't matter since they had each other.

To be continued...

Well, here's the third chapter if you didn't read it already on evamade. I know it's a bit rushed and all (at least it seems like it now that I've re-read it), but bear through it since this is my first fic and I'm experimenting here. As always, I'd appreciate it if you would leave a review, since I like to know what my readers think. For those that reviewed, especially Kaliaila and Fifth Horseman, thanks a lot, your support means much to me.


	4. Chapter 4

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

A/N: Oh ,boy, here we go again, just one chapter ago and I already had the gary-stu comments (sigh) well, I would have been surprised if I didn't get them. Anyway, people, I'm wondering if you understood what you read in chapter four on evamade, or what you'll read here on FF (dot) Net. I'll leave some author notes at the end of this chapters to explain some things, though I have to warn you that they'll contain spoilers.

I managed to get this out more quickly because I'm getting used to how the site works and I had a more flexible initial formating that didn't go to hell because of it.

Chapter 4: Answers, questions and decisions

Disclaimer:If you didn't get the idea until now you never will...

The day after the party obviously started slowly, due to the lack of sleep or of very consistent hangovers, neither of which were really pleasant. Still John planed to wake everyone up and get them in the kitchen by 9 in the morning, this was the day many of them had been waiting for after all. That and he knew that it would take a long time to get things done anyway, there was a lot to talk about and a few decisions to be taken. So he decided to wake up those who were staying in the free bed rooms first.

He asked a few people to remain after the party and join them in the more special meeting and skip orientation. Those were the following: the former Sub-commander of NERV, the bridge crew(Maya, Shigeru and Makoto) and Toji because he was involved with the Evas directly that obviously meant Hikari as well but not Kensuke. John had a soft spot for couples, anyone could tell you that. Also, Kaji and Misato were also going to be present, the first because he was supposed to be dead for good, the second because of her involvement in the events.

So John decided to start breakfast and then wake up everyone slowly and get them to eat and try to get them out of their hangovers if they had such problems. He knew a few people which certainly would, number one on the list being Misato of course. Thankfuly he could use his powers to eliminate toxins out of someone else's body, and alcohol was one of the easy targets, he learned that trick for poisons, but he still wasn't at doctor level. John was the kind of person that could handle a lot of jobs and do anything quickly.

Due to his age, the man learned a lot of things, still he wasn't perfect in a lot of them, but he had his strong points. One of his more unusual strong points was the fact that like his avatar he had the eight blade tentacles coming from his shoulders. That made him pretty unusual but the inhabitants of the house got used to it, since he used them in this or that while at home. Momentarily he used them to get breakfast done at a greater speed, also helped by the light of his soul. Unlike Shinji and Asuka, he was experienced in using it and he knew far more complex things that creating barriers of different sizes or changing the temperature of the before mentioned barriers.

Still, no one that saw him considered him weird, he had this strange way of moving and speaking that made him look like the most normal person in the world. You tended to trust him when you saw him, he didn't even try to convince you to trust him, he was simply kind and considerate. Also, he seemed to love everyone just the same, not a sexual or romantic love, but a strange connection that told everyone that he would be there for them. His attitude melted anyone's defenses around him, his honesty disarmed you and his face made you think that you were looking at a higher being.

John was well aware of these facts, he was what some called the hero type. He wanted to save everyone and to bring an end to unnecessary suffering, to bring an end to injustice. Also he was realistic enough to know that was most likely impossible, but he could strive to improve things for those around him. That would reach grater heights today, it would be a very important step.This day will change everything. I just hope that after all they've been through this won't cause a to big shock. Most of the strain will be on those two children, but it will probably be over after today, if they chose it to be so.

--

Asuka woke up to the smell of cooking, fact which was odd since Shinji was still with her in bed, well actually under her. Waking up with her head on his chest was definitely something she wanted to get used to, it was very pleasant and his heart beat had a surprisingly relaxing effect. She felt safe sleeping in his arms like that, especially since Shinji was less perverted than normal boys his age. She knew that all to well, she had seen a lot of his mind and she knew how he felt. It was funny to realize that he thought so deeply, that he was more impressed by who she was than how she looked.

The before mentioned boy was already awake and felt the red headed beauty beginning to stir, he had been awake for an hour or so, but he couldn't get up without waking her up, that and he couldn't stop staring at her while sleeping. She had a such a peaceful smile when she slept and her face was relaxed, it was divine for him, he knew that he would never get tired of it. Reason for which he waited and knew 

that he would wait even if she would do this every morning, actually, he's like to do this every morning for the rest of his life.

"Morning Shinji."The girl said after a brief yawn."How long have you been awake?"

"No idea." He replied honestly."Sleep well?"

"Like you have to ask."She replied with a devious smile.

"Good, then we should get up."

"Yea, we hopefully get those answers we were looking for today. I just hope that he isn't tricking us." Asuka said as she got out of bed.

"Somehow, I don't think he is."Shinji said as he got out of bed himself and went for his room, he checked to see if no one was in the hallway then stepped out. Before he could get very far though he heard the red head calling him."Shinji aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?"He asked turning to face her. Before he could say anymore she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a deep kiss."You forgot to say good morning properly."

"Yea, how stupid of me."He said, then changed tactics."Could you ever forgive me?"

"Only if you say it again."Instead of a reply he kissed her and when they broke of he spoke again."Good morning Asuka, I love you."

"Oh you're so corny. But you better not stop or I'll kill you!" She said in a mock serious voice.

After that little exchange they each went in their own rooms to change and get ready for the possibly difficult day ahead. Both of them failed to notice Hikari standing at the other end of the hall, though she didn't see Shinji come out of Asuka's room, she did catch the last part of the exchange and she was blushing furiously. Somehow, she knew that things would be a lot different from now on with her best friend, in the good way.

--

It took a while to get everyone to the table, but due to John's intervention no one was having a hang over, not even Misato who was a rather legendary drinker. Everyone ate in silence, thinking about what would follow and wondering what would happen after all this. Some were afraid more or less, others were anxious, everyone had some opinion on the matter and no one could be neutral about it. Eventually, Toji decided to break the awkward silence.

"Ok, this is getting on my nerves, why are we all acting like we're preparing for our own funerals?!"

"Good question. I for one was expecting questions, some of you were pretty eager to get answers, so I imagined that the show would start right from breakfast. Should I understand that you don't want to know anything after all?"John said everything with a neutral tone but the last part was finished with a mischievous grin.

"No way!"Asuka snapped, though her raised voice and sudden reaction had no effect on the older man's expression, except for a knowing smile."You want to start now? Ok! Who the hell are you anyway, how are you so old and what's going on here?"

"Ok that part of the story I can tell you here." He replied."Everyone please listen carefully, because I don't like repeating myself."After everyone nodded he continued."Ok, first of all, you must understand that the Earth on which you were born was not the planet on which human life originated. Then you must understand that Lilith as you know her is not the mother of humanity and Adam isn't the Father of the so called angels, neither of them were gods, just very powerful."

He was forced to wait until everyone calmed down from their shocked reaction and after they stopped asking about what he meant or saying that it didn't rally make sense."I said listen!" He stated, his voice 

wasn't angry, but it had strength in it, it was a command that everyone obeyed instantly."Wait until I'm finished, this will make sense, just have patience."

"The fact is that there was another planet on which human life began, but that was many million years before, I'm not sure myself how long it has been. At any rate, the fact is that I modeled this planet for about 100 years before humans began to awake from their slumber here. You see, on the first Earth, humans evolved a lot, they learned how to use the light of their own souls, allowing them to do incredible things. Things went so well that humanity was united under a single rulership, there were no wars, most diseases had been eradicated and those that existed weren't fatal, crimes were almost nonexistent and death by something else except natural causes was just a fairy take with which to scare children. In other words it was almost perfect, sure there was suffering, there were accidents, there was pain, but these are just part of life.

Unfortunately things were not meant to last because a conflict ensued, it was inevitable that something would change things in a bad way. At that time the planet was ruled by a triumvirate, my father was lead triumvir and those which you call Adam and Lilith were the other two triumvirs. Both of them feared that humanity had reached it's limits in a way or another and they were both power hungry. To be a leader in those times meant that you had to have a considerable power besides knowledge and love for your people. My father was the strongest man alive, stronger than the two combined, the light of his soul was incredible, still, he didn't care about power, he just loved humanity and wanted to protect the world he loved.

The other two had other ideas unfortunately, Adam wanted power, a lot of it, he wanted to become a god. Lilith wanted to change humanity, to make it perfect so each man an woman would never be alone again to create a link between everyone that would allow anyone to share anything with whoever they wanted while also maintaining individuality. Still, this in itself wasn't that bad, but both wanted to enforce their visions of the world. Adam would evolve humanity in his vision while he was a god while Lilith would do pretty much the same thing but from the other angle, by evolving humanity she would become a god.

They secretly gathered allies which supported their visions and prepared to enforce them. My father had no idea of their plans at that time, no one did except those who were directly involved. The two made their moves at the same time, starting an incredible war, not expecting an enemy. When the madness started, my father and a number of people who didn't trust either side created Sanctuary planning to allow as many people to escape as possible. They created a Dirac sea and in it they built the structure in which we're living now, it was supposed to be their main base.

Meanwhile the war escalated to absurd heights, in a matter of months it was hell. One thing you should all know, the first Earth had two moons and in this two moons the two rivals had constructed their bases. Adam brought forth a new weapon to the battlefield, the so called angels, soulless beasts powered by S2 engines. He went so far as to transform himself into such a creature and craft a weapon for himself like none had ever seen, what you know as the Lance of Longinus. Though others could use this weapon, only his power could raise it to it's full potential. Lilith responded to this threat by teaching her followers new ways in which to use the light of the soul.

That was not everything, Lilith, knowing that she had to match Adam somehow turned herself into a form of angel, and this led to our world's down fall. A titanic clash took place between the two, their enormous powers tore through our beloved planet and effectively destroyed it in a matter of minutes. The planet was completely annihilated, without leaving any trace behind. The two moons were thrown into space, the survivors placing themselves into stasis, hoping to awaken when they would reach a safer place and hopefully gain some distance between the two factions.

The irony of it all was that the opposite forces of Adam and Lilith actually created a strange attraction between the moons. They circled one another while slowly getting closer to each other. Meanwhile, I was the last survivor of Sanctuary, I was the only one hidden in the base when the first Earth exploded, a 14 year old boy which somehow inherited all of his father's enormous powers. I was angry, but I wasn't stupid, I didn't let anger get the best of me, so I kept my body in stasis while my mind directed the Dirac sea to keep close to the two moons.

My body didn't age during that time and I don't hold that time at my age, but I did spend several hundred years waiting. Then, it happened, the two moons finally collided and the result was not pleasant. Thankfully the location was favorable, the second Earth, your old home. Adam's moon was mostly destroyed in the impact and collided with the planet, at the current south pole, burying itself well in the planet's surface. Lilith's moon was more lucky, most of it's structure survived, but the core was ripped from it's shell and crashed on to the planet as well due to gravity and the effects of that unnatural attraction.

In Adam's moon, those which survived were still in stasis, the same could be said about Lilith's and I had no intention of awakening anyone too soon. First, I repaired the shell of Lilith's moon with the help of my tremendous power and I turned it into a new moon. Then, I began working on this planet, I dreamt of resurrecting my fallen world at that time, but even after hundreds of years of waiting and trying to 

absorb knowledge, I lacked something very important. I never truly lived so I lacked wisdom, and so I created a false history for this world, taking humanity back in it's distant pasts of my home world.

In reality, no on actually inhabited Earth before what you know as year 0 and the beginning of the first century after Christ. Still the absurd powers I had allowed me to do just that and create a fake world, and then I began awakening individuals. I reformed memories and I tried to avoid a disaster like that from ever happening again. Still, my methods were flawed, because I failed to solve the real problems that caused that tragedy. I used my powers to trap Lilith and Adam in deep stasis, hoping that they would never awaken again, I had woken up most of the other humans that survived and sent them to new lives.

I thought that I could solve humanity's problems somehow, but I was stupid. As I worked on Adam, five of his councilmen awoke. They had all of their memories and full powers, I was stuck trying to ensure that Adam never woke up again. The battle that took place in that situation lead to very bad results. Though I was able to complete my work with him, to do so and defeat the five cost me most of my powers and it almost cost me my life. At that time I believed that I had killed the five and I was devastated, the thought of taking someone's life was disgusting it still is.

I survived only because I somehow stumbled into a town and some people were willing to take care of me. I was devastated and they helped me back on my feet, I began leading a normal life even in those times. I fell in love and I raised a family, by doing so I decided to return to sanctuary. Then I transformed Sanctuary into a place were the civilization of the first Earth could truly be resurrected. We isolated ourselves from the world, thinking that it would take a long time for humanity to reach a state where we would have to worry about it's survival, not that there was much that we could do at that time anyway.

Still, the councilors I thought dead were still alive, crippled but alive and powerless. They formed SEELE, they're the top ranking members and their attempt that lead to Second Impact was to awaken Adam. Thankfully, my work held and they almost killed him instead of awakening him. I sensed that event and I began to intervene silently, I decided to start my own project related to the angels which lead to the avatar, but I'll get into that later. As for the angels you know, they were Adam's servitors that had awoken after the attempt. They tried to awaken him as well, but that was not in SEELE's plans, since their lust for power lead to them wanting to become gods instead of their mentor.

I had settled some operations with which to help the population of the planet in secret, and I got to work on trying to create something that was equivalent to Evas and angels. The irony is that I succeeded, and at the same time as your mothers had a similar accident that left me in a coma for 11 years or so. I 

awoken from it only 2 hours before Third Impact began, I rushed with my avatar to the scene but I was too late. So I discussed the matter with the two that started this, Lilith and Adam. I helped them return the souls after Shinji made the decision to end Instrumentality then the rest is well known fact as I rescued the two of you from SEELE's servant."

John stopped and waited, closely examining everyone at the table as they digested the information. He knew that most of it was somewhat irrelevant to their situation but they had to know non the less. Finally, Fuyutsky decided to speak."So, SEELE is actually much older than we know, at least the leading five are. What happened to your powers in the end?"

"I never recovered completely, one day maybe I will."John replied."Oh, since we started talking I can inform mister Kaji here as to why he is alive. Still, I'll have to warn you that you won't like the answer and you might not want to hear it."

Kaji chuckled a bit before speaking."After a story like that and going through Third Impact I doubt it can be that bad."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."John said with a serious glare to everyone."Ok, I'll be swift, your soul was used for one of the Mass Production Evas, number 8 or 11 I think, I don't know for sure."Everyone at the table gasped and Asuka looked at Kaji with an expression that could kill. She still had issues with that event and that kind of link between her tormentors and anyone in the room could serve as death sentence for that person, presuming that Shinji wouldn't be restraining her.

"How is that possible, I don't remember anything about it!" Kaji almost screamed, the thought of being an Eva wasn't exactly nice.

"Due to your unusual extraction and resurrection it's pretty normal, especially since you had no control over the thing, they just needed you as a catalyst for AT fields. There was nothing you could have done to stop that thing, you weren't in the Eva long enough to become self aware like Yui Ikari did."John said."Also, even she couldn't really do much."

"Excuse me sir, but I'd call a berserk Eva as pretty much."Maya hesitantly spoke.

"Oh, she wasn't really the cause of that, she allowed it to happen yes, but it was Shinji that truly made the Eva go mad."John said.

"If you were unconscious during this time, how can you know so much?"Misato asked.

"When I said that I talked with Lilith and Adam, you shouldn't take it literally, back on the first Earth no one talked, we exchanged thoughts. Since all three of us are pretty good at it, that meant they could feed me information directly in my own memory."John replied."Now I must show you some things and proceed to more explanations.

--

After leading them in the basement in a certain room, they discovered that the whole room was actually an elevator that lead right at the avatar's resting place. The elevator stopped right in front of the avatar's chest and they could look at it in all it's glory. During this time Shinji felt a calling from the avatar, he went as close to the edge as he could and out of some unknown instinct he spoke only one word."Come!"

The avatar's armor was pierces in a few places as a red liquid flew out from the holes than formed the Lance of Longinus right in front of Shinji floating. Shinji looked at it and nodded, then spoke again."Wait, I will return."

The weapon began spinning around it's axis staying in it's position and it was emanating a clearly visible blue glow. Even Asuka was shocked by Shinji's behavior and by what she saw, but she knew that he would explain himself and his strange actions. Though before Shinji could do so John spoke.

"Well, since Adam left you his powers it's only normal that his weapon submits to you as well. Now it's your weapon, you can even take a piece of it for your own use, you can do what ever you want with it."

"I know." Shinji said, unable to say anymore.

"Wait, you're saying that Shinji has the power of the first angel?!"Misato asked not really believing her ears.

"Would you please stop calling those things angels?!"John replied."Anyway, even that idiot realized that he was wrong and that his plans could only corrupt souls and lead to suffering. So he left his power to the person to whom he had caused the most suffering personally. We all know that the pilot's lives have been hell from the very beginning. Also, besides Kaji you are all aware of the Kaworu incident.

You must all know that as Rei had Lilith's soul within her, Kaworu had Adam's soul. Of course that doesn't really explain why he'd leave all of his power in Shinji's hands or why Lilith would leave all of her power to Asuka, but that which is done cannot be changed, we can only deal with the facts."

"So in other words both children have enough power within them to cause an Impact if they wanted to and together they could very well restart Instrumentality."Fuyutsky stated.

"Yes and no."John said."They have the power, but using it at such a level is a completely different thing all together. They can't use the power at such a level yet, it would kill them both before they could succeed. Still as Shinji demonstrated, they can use parts of their powers and can improve them by a lot, eventually they'll be able to use them at their full potential and obviously expand them since your powers become greater as you use them."

"So you're saying that eventually me and Shinji will be able to use all those powers. Ok, I understand that they're equal to some extent, but you also said that they're very different."Asuka said.

"Oh great now the wanna be she-devil is a real she-devil!"Toji lamented, which of course earned him a severe ear pulling from Hikari and a menacing growl from Asuka."Maybe I'll use you as a test subject for my new powers stooge! I already have a few ideas of what tricks I can do with them!"

"You wouldn't dare devil!"

"Is that a dare?! I'll show you!"Still the red head stopped when she felt a hand on her right arm and turned to look at Shinji who had an expression that said 'it isn't worth it'. So Asuka simply gave him one of her patented death glares.

"Watch it with your powers you could actually kill him by looking at him like that!"John said with a dead serious voice, he wasn't joking at all. Even Toji got the hint, fact which lead him to become pretty pale in the face. The idea that someone could kill you by looking at you was enough to scare most men.

"Shouldn't we return to the reason why you brought us here?"Makoto asked."And you still didn't explain the differences between my and Shinji's powers." Asuka continued.

"I'll explain those differences in private, also, I'm offering to teach you both how to use those abilities to their maximum potential." John replied." As for the reason we're all here, I'll start with the avatar which by now you've all noticed that it's not restrained. The reason for that is that the avatar isn't a separate entity, it's an extension of my body. In other words, I don't sync with it, I am it." As he finished the avatar got on it's feet and extended a hand into towards the elevator than touched John's right index finger with the tip of it's right index finger. The movement was perfect and natural as if a real human was moving not a giant bio-mech.

"Wow, that's awesome!"Toji said.

"It's useful, but if I control the avatar while outside it's body my this body is in danger as well. In other words, I sustain full injuries and this part of my body doesn't regenerate as well as that one."John said. The Evas were pretty close to becoming avatars themselves, instead of needing pilots they would have been connected with their respective pilots mothers. Of course SEELE wouldn't have wanted that to happen, Yui Ikari and Kyoko Zeplyn Sohryu knew too much.

That's why they've been set up. Still the next part of the explanation must involve them as well."John said with a saddened expression at first then switched to slightly amused one afterwards.

"What do you mean. They're both dead."Fuyutsky stated.

"I'll explain immediately, follow me please."

--

John lead them trough the halls of the complex to a room at quite some distance from his avatar's resting throne. He lead the group to a room and first allowed Shinji and Asuka to enter. In the room they saw the transparent images of the two before mentioned women. They sat in chairs facing each other and apparently playing chess, they didn't notice the two children enter the room since it was pretty large and the two were paralyzed in the door way not really believing what they were seeing. A couple of minutes pass then Kyoko speaks with a short German insult.

"Well you beat me again Yui. What's taking that man so long to bring our children here, I haven't seen my daughter face to face in ages! If I'd have my body I'd kill him!"

"Calm down Kyoko, I'm sure he has his reasons and he promised us that we will get our bodies back eventually, until then we're stuck to these holograms."Yui spoke, obviously calmer than her companion.

"Three to four years! That's a lot of time!"Kyoko replied obviously unnerved. The last comment broke Shinji out of his trance."At least now I know were your temper came from."

"How long have you two been standing there?" Yui asked."Never mind that come closer, we can't move that far out."

The two children complied while the rest of the group was being held out by John until the reunion was over. Asuka went in front of her mother's hologram and examined it intently trying to determine if she was dreaming or not. Eventually she spoke.

"Moma, is it... is it really you?"

"Yes my darling Asuka, I missed you so much, if only I could take you in my arms. You've grown a lot and I've missed so much of your life."Kyoko said, her voice overwhelmed with emotions."I thought I lost you!" Asuka cried out.

"I thought I lost myself too, but that unnerving man, John, pulled my soul out of the remains of Unit-02 and set this room up for me and Yui over there. After the incident with those Evas I was so confused that I wasn't even able to speak with you. To be honest I never imagined that once started Third Impact could be stopped."Kyoko said.

"Well, Shinji isn't that dense. He took the right choice where all this is concerned."Asuka replied.

"Shinji? What you're not calling him idiot anymore?" Kyoko asked slightly surprised, but wearing a comfortable smile."Am I missing something out of this picture?"

"Mother! How do you even know about that?!" Asuka asked, failing to hide the obvious."Well I was in the Eva and some of your thoughts would slip through during the times you synced with me. So I know a lot more than you'd probably tell me. Though a lot less than what Yui knows from her son, I wasn't nearly as aware as she was, otherwise those Evas would be dead and Third Impact averted in another way."

"I already told you that I only made things easier for Shinji, but the berserker bit was pretty much his."Yui replied with a rather exasperated tone.

"I doubt I'd be able to do that on my own mother." Shinji replied.

"I don't know, I remember when you thought the 14th before you ran out of power."Asuka said."You looked pretty much berserk to me, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to notice how awkward the situation was."

"I was really, really angry..."Shinji replied remembering that specific battle and how he felt also why he felt that way.

"Yea I know..." Asuka replied in a slightly dreamy voice.

This exchange was not lost on the two mothers, who were confused a bit, since they knew a more or less about their children's situations. Yui knew her son's feelings for the German girl, but she also knew how shy and withdrawn he normally was. Still he seemed more confident than before, she also knew how Asuka used to behave towards him, so the girl's current behavior didn't make sense, she hadn't insulted the boy once. Kyoko was just as confused since she was aware of her daughter's hidden feelings and her monumental pride, a fake pride used only to attract attention while also keeping people away from her preventing her from ever feeling hurt, or loved. Something was of, both knew that.

"Ok, are you sure that you're the same two children from before Third Impact?"Kyoko asked.

"God I hope not!" Asuka replied, she didn't want to feel like that again and she didn't want to push away Shinji either, maybe even let others get close to her, in time.

"I'm certain that it's not the case Mrs. Sohryu." Shinji replied.

"Yui, someone replaced our children with something else."Kyoko said with a mock serious voice."Your son is taller than he should be..."

"Leaving the jokes aside that is odd!"Yui said examining her son."What's going on?"

"That we don't know yet."Shinji replied.

"I bet I know who does!" Asuka said."John move your ass down here! You've got a lot of explaining to do!"That was followed by several German curses."Asuka! I never want to hear such language again you hear me young lady?"Kyoko said with a scolding tone, in German as well. The odd part was that Shinji was able to understand them.

"I don't even want to know..."Yui said rolling her eyes.

"You really don't..."Shini said."Since when can I speak German?!"

"Wait you understood us?" Asuka asked.

"Yea, though I wonder if I really wanted to know those things."Shinji replied."Sooo, it wasn't just a dream..."

"Then it worked!" Asuka replied smirking.

"Now, didn't you two want an explanation?" John said after leading the group in.

"What's happening to my son?"Yui asked slightly worried, she didn't know what could cause those changes and if they had negative effects or not.

"Oh it's nothing abnormal, Adam's powers are improving his body that's it. They created a short growth spurt, they've developed his muscles by changing the natural form of his muscle fibers, that's why he doesn't look more muscular but he isn't as skinny as before either. His bones are probably as hard as steel by now, well actually steel is softer. If he'd have an avatar, he'd even develop an S2 organ in his body. Before you ask, Asuka received the same treatment, but the changes aren't visible because there was no need for a growth spurt, not to mention that the changes in her body are more moderate and they tend to affect mental abilities." John explained calmly.

Everyone in the room was silent and staring at John, though no one wanted to comment on those facts, because they knew they were facts.

"Well I'm definitely not complaining."Asuka whispered to Shinji."It does explain how I was able to pick you up like that."He whispered back.

"Ok, I'd like to discuss the so called deaths of these two ladies. I know it's a touchy subject but one which has to be taken care of since there are certain things of which you must be aware."John said and the two women simply nodded.

"I'll start with Kyoko and I'll start by saying that she didn't commit suicide!"

"But... but then what happened?" Asuka asked while the horrific images of her mother hanging from the ceiling took a short swing though her mind. Shinji took her right hand in his letting her know that he was there for her.

"Well, the situation was pretty ugly, SEELE wanted to obtain the same results as with Unit-01, since they were still working on proper techniques for transferring souls. Still things didn't go as planed, Kyoko survived the contact experiment with Unit-02, her soul was bonded to the creature just as much as it was bonded to her own body. This caused her to temporarily loose track of reality, but she never had a chance to recover.

SEELE realized that there she would recover so they used drugs to ensure that she'd go mad for good, leading to the hospital incident which you remember Asuka. Still even those couldn't push her of the edge and because of her link with Unit-02, she was going to recover pretty soon. Fact which lead to SEELE killing her and staging a suicide, planning on you finding her that way.

To make things worse, the whole episode in the hospital was suggested to her specifically to lead you to that state of mind. An arrogant girl with Eva as her sole purpose was easily controllable, you didn't fail them in that regard. This will come as a blow to you, but you actually became their puppet by choosing the course you did."John stopped seeing that Asuka was on the verge of collapse and Kyoko had a very shocked expression on her face. Shinji was now holding Asuka who clung to him as well, he was her life line and she wasn't afraid to admit that.

"I shouldn't continue, it's pretty obvious that this is a bad idea..."John said."No, go on, we have to burry our pasts, this is the only way."Asuka's voice came as a whisper, but a very determined one. John looked at Kyoko who nodded, knowing all to well that this had to be dealt with.

"Very well, another thing which you should know is that Mr. Sohryu was in on all this and he was there to ensure that things went according to the scenario, so you can pretty well imagine what kind of person he is. He was the one responsible with Kyoko's treatment in the hospital and, if my sources are correct, I personally hope not, he murdered you personally, without the slightest bit of remorse, since the worst of it is that he wasn't ordered to kill you, just to solve the problem somehow and ensure that the soul was put in it's Eva and that the pilot was controllable."

"That bastard! I should kill him!"Kyoko said, similar thoughts were going trough Shinji's head for different reasons, while Asuka was too shocked.I hope I never meet that man, otherwise I WOULD kill him for what he did to Asuka. Come to think of it, I really could do that now, heck I'd probably have the blessing from Asuka's mom to do it too.

"Well, if you want me to I could do it if I ever run into him." John said."He's probably still involved with SEELE, though I can guarantee that his death would bring you no satisfaction. Setting that aside, I guess I should explain the only thing about Yui's death which you two are not aware of. The fact that the accident was made possible through the intervention of Naoko Akagi, though when Gendo found out, he set up her suicide and placed her soul in Unit-00.

It's ironic that, despite his methods, the end result of Gendo's plan wouldn't have been Third Impact, it would have lead to Yui's resurrection, period. Though he was so obsessed to get you back that he used all the wrong methods, that and he thought himself too worthless to try and be a father, he thought that he would have hurt Shinji even more if he tried to take care of him. In other words he was plain stupid, he had the right intentions to some extent, but he used all the wrong methods considering that the end justifies the means, which is wrong."

"I know." Shinji said in a low voice."My father never hated me... he just ran away."Shinji looked at away before continuing."Like father like son I guess..."

"Oh stop it, you're nothing like the man!" Asuka said then leaned near his ear." I could never love a man like that, I know I love you and I know that you're nothing like him."

Everyone in the room remained silent after John's explanations, no one knew what to say. Everyone had their own thoughts concerning what they had learned now and everyone wondered exactly why did that 

man explain this to them. It was obvious why Shinji and Asuka needed to know these things, but even to them it seemed that there was something wrong in the picture.

"So, what are your plans concerning this mess?"Surprisingly it was Shinji who spoke, his tone was different, it reminded everyone in the room of his father. Still, unlike his father it wasn't cold, rather concerned yet emitting a great strength.

"I intend to kill the 5 SEELE members that caused this, then I'll use Sanctuary's resources to help your world recover. Unfortunately, they were prepared in case Instrumentality failed, they're making their own beasts now, so called angels. Also, they're using soulless clones as soldiers, Toji, Hikari, those were the soldiers that attacked and destroyed Tokyo-2. The soldiers that fought them were Sanctuary's armored units acting at my orders, though things could have went better.

You've probably realized by now that I'm the leader of Sanctuary, I'm it's Founder and I intend to use it's power for once. I've never required anything of my people before, but it is time to act. You've all been involved more or less and I have a few announcements to make. First of all, professor Fuyutsky, I'm arranging a paid retirement for you here, but we might require your help when we track down Gendo."

"So the bastard is still alive."Asuka growled.

"Yes, and though he doesn't know what SEELE is truly doing he already has his own plans in motion. He's still trying to get you back."John said directing the last part towards Yui."Is he using the same kind of methods?"

"I don't know, all we know so far is that Ritsuko Akagi is most likely with him. Still, he has to be stopped as well. As for SEELE's plans, they're trying to get you two, alive, for now."

"Don't tell me, they want our powers, right?"Shinji asked.

"Bingo, that's exactly what they want. That's why I'm recommending that you two remain here and wait until it's all over. That would be the best course of action, since they have no means of accessing 

Sanctuary or moving properly in a sea of Dirac."John said looking at the two teenagers then turned to the rest of the group."The three of you from the bridge crew, we could find you jobs related to the avatar, since you were involved with the technical details of Evas. Of course that doesn't mean that you can start right away, there are quite a few things you'll need to learn. Not to mention that everyone will receive some courses in trying to awaken the light of the soul, though don't get your hopes up, the children will surely succeed, but adults have fewer chances, unless they have a great belief in this sort of thing, faith precedes the miracle.

Toji, Hikari, one of the reasons I brought you here is to explain something about your lives. You have something in common with the rest of the Eva pilots, all candidates have the same problem. I believe you know what that is."

"We all lost our mothers, even Kensuke!"Toji said."I think I get it, the souls of our mothers have been taken for Evas, so in other words, everyone in our class could have been a pilot, right?"

"I'm afraid so."John replied, sorrow could be felt in his voice."You two will receive orientation as well, but you should know Toji that you'll probably awaken the light of your soul with ease. You have the potential to become an armor pilot eventually and you'll probably be quite an athlete. Unfortunately, we don't really bother with sports here because of the different uses of the light of the soul, which makes most sports impossible to balance."

"Ok, we get the idea, what about me and Kaji? What do you want from us?"Misato asked, obviously curious.

"I'm glad that you asked, you see I'm in need of a second pair of eyes for the battlefield, a tactical advisor if you will. You're an experienced officer and we'll be fighting things similar to angels from time to time. You won't have to take any decisions unless I'm knocked out of battle, you'll be more of a safety net. Also, there's no paperwork involved and you're not called to the office daily since there's no real chance for a surprise operation since I'm in charge anyway. what do you say?"

"Is it well paid?"

"Well duh."John said."You'll earn triple compared to what you used to learn and you have a lot less expenses to worry about."

"Then I'll take it!"Misato replied.

"As for Mr. Kaji here, I have one job that might fit him. He'll help us gather information from time to time. If you want the job of course. Most of the time you'll be wasting time around here and I won't give you any job nearly as suicidal as you used to have."John said with a slight smile."So, what do you think."

"I was always a man that wanted to search for the truth. So why not, I might even be able to help you locate Gendo more easily, I still have a score to settle with him for ordering my death."Kaji replied.

"I see well that will be all."John said.

"Wait! What happened to Unit-01?"Shinji asked calmly.

"It's in our possession we intend to destroy it since we have no use for it. The only reason I brought it back was to remove your mother's soul from it. It's nothing but a vessel awaiting a soul now." John said.

"Or a potential avatar."Shinji replied.

"Yes, but there's no one in Sanctuary with a strong enough light of the soul at the moment to attempt to connect to it and transform it into an avatar. Unless... You can't possibly think to turn it into YOUR avatar!"

"You'll need help out there, you won't be able to handle it alone. I have this power which only I can use, just like with Unit-01 back before Third Impact. I have a responsibility, as much as I hate fighting, as much as I'm afraid that I'll hurt someone, I know that I have to do something. Doing nothing is much worse than actually trying something! I promised I wouldn't run away and that's exactly what I'd be 

doing if I'd try to hide in here!" Shinji said, determined, his voice never faltered, he showed no sign of weakness, even though this decision frightened him to the death, but he knew that it was the only way.

"Truth be told, many deaths could be averted if I accept your help. Still I'm reluctant to allow you to attempt to merge with Unit-01, it could kill you! Still with your power and with the proper training you'd be able to help me in ground interventions as well. Plus when we'll find your father you'd be able to confront him directly. Fine Shinji, you're in, I'll prepare an armor for you and I'll start training you tomorrow, you have a lot to learn about fighting."

"I'm in this too!" Asuka said."Don't even try to say no Shinji! I'm not going to let you out there alone!"

"Ok Asuka, ok..." Shinji replied reluctantly.

"Oh boy... what am I getting myself into?" John asked."Anyway, I'll take the rest of you out. Shinji, Asuka, I'll leave you here with your mothers, I'll be back in a couple of hours to pick you up. Is that ok?"

The children nodded and John lead the rest of the group outside. The two mothers exchanged knowing looks between themselves before returning their eyes upon their children. Yui was the first to speak.

"That was something very noble of you Shinji, I'm proud of you. I only wish you could be safe... Still, you're more mature than I remember, you've changed."

"Not really, Shinji here has always been the hero type, he was just to afraid to do what he wanted."Asuka asked, causing a slight blush from the boy.

"I'm proud of you Asuka."Kyoko said, honestly smiling at her daughter.

"What for?"

"For being honest with yourself. I imagined that your pride would still get in the way, but it seems that you've been able to bury it and accept your feelings for the boy."Kyoko replied."Oh, that, thanks, I think..." Asuka replied, obviously embarrassed by the situation."Shinji, take good care of my daughter and don't do anything stupid! Or else I'll kill you!"

"Mother!"Asuka yelled."How could you say that?!"

"Don't worry Mrs. Sohryu, I wouldn't even think of it."Shinji replied, trying to maintain the confident facade.

"I'll let you know right here and now that Shinji is nothing like other boys!"Asuka fumed.

"I'm your mother, I'm allowed to be worried. Plus, you were the one that called him pervert all the time, that's the only reference I really have. Your surface thoughts at the time and some of your serious emotions. This is the first time I meet him in person."Kyoko said while Yui and Shinji exchanged knowing looks.

"Well Shinji, I can only say that you're very lucky."Yui whispered to her son while the two Sohryu's were arguing.

"Very lucky mother, you probably already know how important she is to me."Shinji said.

"I know, it's rather surprising that things turned out so well. How did it happen?"She asked.

"She saw some of my memories and that cracked her, I guess. She's very much like me and from what I know, I'm the first person to honestly love her since her mother. I don't understand this perfectly, but I don't care either, even if she'd hate me and I'd still be there for her. I won't run away again, since I know that it won't bring me any good!"Shinji said.

The boy's walls had shattered during Third Impact, he wasn't able to hide his true self anymore, his inner strength. He didn't want to, now he had a reason for which to be strong and as long as that reason existed, the shy boy from before, the coward that ran away was as good as dead. Similar things had happened to Asuka, Shinji's memories had pierced through her walls, then shattered them when combined with her own experiences regarding the boy. Still, her walls still held against others, he was the only one she was truly willing to turn to for support. In the end their similarities broke the walls between them and the traits that were opposite ensured attraction in the simplest of terms.

The four continued to talk, there was much left unsaid between the two mothers and their respective children, all four trying to bury their pasts. This experience only strengthened Shinji's decision, he knew now for sure that whether John approved of it or not, he had to be able to use his powers from an avatar. Also, he suspected that Unit-02 was also there, meaning that Asuka could gain an avatar as well. He knew that since he had Adam's power, he could influence an Eva just as Kaworu did, if not better, since he had the full power.

John returned exactly two hours later and after saying their goodbyes, they went out of the room. Shinji knew that this was the time to make his move, so he spoke with John."Listen, can I see Unit-01? It's something I must do, even if you won't let me use it. I have to confront it one more time before you destroy it." John nodded, he understood that fact, still he couldn't imagine the plan behind those words, so he began leading the two towards the place where Unit-01 was held.

--

In a matter of minutes they found themselves standing on a railway before the ugly monster that was Unit-01, it's armor looked undamaged, but the core was still exposed after it had been revealed in the events preceding Third Impact. Shinji could feel the creature, it could feel the fact that it didn't have a soul, he could connect to it, it's body was made just for that fact. In a way he was already connected to it, ever since he became a pilot, a bond was created to the body of the Eva. Now that the soul of his mother had been removed from the body, the bond had become even stronger, they didn't know it, but the only reason for which the Evangalion was even alive was that Shinji's soul was partially supporting it already.

He could feel it now, he could feel the link, all he had to do was to complete it and the Eva's body would become his body, it already had his DNA, after the incident with the 14th. All he had to do was to stake his claim and command it to be his body, he had to impose his soul and take control. Of course, the boy 

didn't really understand this, not in these terms anyway, for him it was something instinctive, he felt what he needed to do. Asuka and John waited near him as he seemed to be having a staring contest with the dormant Eva. John felt that something was wrong, he could feel the air charging with energy, he began to feel the link between the boy and the beast. He realized that it had always been there, but he didn't feel it before because it was to weak, which meant only one thing, it was getting stronger!

John's eyes widened when the realization struck him, he also knew that there was nothing he could do, he couldn't influence the link and even if he took Shinji out of there, it wouldn't help, the link defied space and time. A link of the soul doesn't respect the laws of the physical universe, it is far above them. So he resigned himself to watch what would follow, hoping that no harm would come to the boy.

Shinji raised his arms and the Eva's eyes began to glow, it opened it's mouth and roared, the armor began to bulge on it. Veins came out of it and merged with the armor, then they began to melt it and change it, the Eva was becoming an avatar. The boy closed his eyes as the creature before him changed it's armor, covering it's frightening grin and thickening it's armor. From purple and green, the armor became blue and white, with hints of red, four red stripes went over it's chest converging above the core which was now covered by the new armor. It was still a fearsome sight, but the newly created avatar didn't seem to be the same evil monster which it was before.

A blue light surrounded both Shinji and the avatar as the link was being completed and internal changes took place in the both of them. Though the boy had no idea at the moment, he now had something in common with the avatar, his heart was changed, though still pumping blood and still beating, it was harder and if you could see it, you would have noticed that it became more crystalline, it now doubled as an S2 organ. Finally, the glow faded and the avatar raised it's hand over the boy and slowly examined him with it.

"It's funny to look at myself like this."Shinji said without opening his eyes."This will take some time getting used to, but I'm sure that I'll be able to help you somehow."

"I have to admit that I wasn't expecting this. You must know something about avatars, as you've noticed, you can change their appearance, you can influence their armor and so on. You can also make more drastic changes, like the blade tentacles, but those changes will affect this body as well. So if you let's say, grow a few claws or spikes on the thing, you'll get them too, so you better make sure that whatever you grow is retractable. Otherwise you might change your body in permanent ways, permanent grotesque ways. Get it?"John replied, you could hear that he felt very worried, he didn't like this one 

bit.I'm pretty sure that they want to do the same for her. I'll wait and see though, might as well solve it all today, I don't like it, but I do need their help...

"What about Unit-02?"Asuka asked."I don't expect much of it, but I'm sure that we can do something about it."

John sighed, he hated when he was right in such matters."There's not much left of Unit-02, we have the upper torso, with the core and left arm, it's still alive, but barely. I don't know if it can be regenerated and I don't really recommend a connection to it, the feedback could kill you. Still, if you want to see it and try something it's your call."

"Is there any point of even asking?"Asuka asked obviously annoyed.

"Follow me then..."John said rolling his eyes and cursing his luck.

--

Unit-02 was in a pathetic state, though it was still salvageable and it still had few pieces of it's armor left on it's back, enough to allow a merging to take place. Asuka could already feel a dull pain where the wounds were and a strange numbness in the missing limbs and body parts. Shinji watched the creature, he could command it if he wanted to, it had no soul, and being made from Adam, it was made to obey him. Still, he had no intention of doing that, all he wanted was to help Asuka succeed, and he knew what he had to do.

Shinji raised his right arm towards the creature, concentrating his will on the dormant Evangelion and commanding it. It's core began to glow as it developed it's S2 organ based on the genetic information which lay within the body, then it began regenerating at great speed, stopping when the body was completed. Then the boy lowered his arm, he was sweating all over, that had been a great effort and he felt tired, but it worked.Well, thank you Kaworu, you taught me well.

"You didn't have to do that!"Asuka said, but he cut her of."Yes I did, this thing is made from Adam and you would have needed an S2 anyway."

"Show of. I guess it's up to me now, to bad you couldn't order it to regenerate it's armor to. It looks absolutely ugly like this!"

"It's not an avatar yet."John replied."Well, since you're already linked to it, you can proceed. Worried as I was I forgot that you two were already linked to the beasts, thus you couldn't face the same risks I did when I made my connection with my avatar."

Asuka didn't reply, instead she began focusing, it was surprisingly easy for her to impose herself. Her mind became it's mind and she shared her soul with the monster, the Eva becoming her avatar, the link was easy to achieve, but it was harder for her to command the body. She merged the pieces of armor to the beast then she forced the armor to regenerate all over the body, like an exoskeleton, but this task was surprisingly difficult and she was soon quite exhausted by the task.

At the end of it all, Unit-02 looked pretty much the same, still, it didn't have any markings on itself, the armor was obviously thicker and at the same time more flexible. Also, Asuka herself was barely standing on her feet, unlike Shinji, she had to do active regeneration for her avatar and she was drained. So she collapsed, but never reached the floor as the boy caught her and took her in his arms. This was only the beginning.

"I think it's time to go home."Shinji said."Also, move the lance near Unit-01, it will come in handy when we'll actually fight."

John nodded and lead the boy out of the complex and back to his villa, things were becoming quite interesting. Yet the man knew that they would have a long way to go, still, with their help, maybe things would improve at a faster pace.

--

Later that day Shinji and Asuka were standing together on the balcony of their floor, watching the sun set, both of them deep in thought. It had been an interesting day to say the least, and both of them took some decisions which would affect their lives for a long time to come. The future seemed somewhat uncertain now that they would fight an enemy which they once thought they knew, only to discover that they knew nothing.

"Do you think we made the right choice?"Shinji asked, more to himself but Asuka heard him.

"I don't know Shinji, but, you said it yourself, we can't stand around doing nothing. I'm sure we'll be all right."She replied, even though she had her own doubts about the situation.

"I just hope that you'll be ok, I don't want you to get hurt again."Shinji said."I failed before when I tried to protect the ones I care for. I failed you..."

"It wasn't your fault. We were both screwed up back then, maybe we still are. Now though, no one will stop you from helping, except for being beaten in battle. I know that won't happen."She said as she leaned on him.

"Maybe you're right."

"Of course I'm right, are you insinuating that the great Asuka Langley Sohryu can be wrong?"The redhead asked, barely being able to maintain her old tone.

"Me? Never!"Shinji replied chuckling.

"Good, now stop worrying so much, you're making me nervous."She said in a soft voice.

The two remained silent as the fake sun disappeared slowly, if they didn't know it was fake, they would have never realized it. Everything was quiet as the day ended, but the two didn't worry about it anymore, they had each other and nothing would force them apart again.

To be continued...

A/N part2: Well, if you think that John is some uber warrior who's invincible, think again. If you read the whole chapter, you'll see that he's lost most of the powers he had after fighting the 5 councilmen long before the Angel wars. His incredibly mind bending powers won't make a come back either, the only reason I even mentioned them and those events is to clear some things around Adam and Lilith since I don't like that whole religious symbolism crap, seeing that I'm Christian and all.

To top this of, the only reason he seems stronger now than Shinji or Asuka is that they don't know instantly how to control their powers, they have to LEARN! Even now 1 on 1 with Shinji he could loose because Shinji has the freakin' Lance of Longinus that doesn't give a damn about any AT fields in its way.

To top this of, he doesn't show any invincible characteristics in chapter five either, actually Asuka is more over powered than he is if you actually READ the fight scenes.

As for making Shinji and Asuka the leaders of Sanctuary, I can't do that right now as they don't have the knowledge to do so just now.

The final note on John and you shouldn't read this if you don't want to have this spoiled (I have no choice but to place it here since I can't reply to anonymous reviews) is that he dies, get it, about half way if my plans go as I want them to. (that meaning at about chapters 8 or 9, I'm planing around 16...)


	5. Chapter 5

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 5:First moves

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

Three weeks had passed since the awkward meeting and everyone was now used to their new lives and obviously new routines as well. Of course, life wasn't perfect, especially for the two former pilots which knew that it wouldn't be long until they'd start to go back to Earth on missions. During this time they had trained and enjoyed their life together, at the same time John was still gathering information.

Back on Earth, everyone lived their lives just as before Third Impact, aside from the destruction on Tokyo-3 and the assumed destruction of Tokyo-2, there was no other damage. Sure there had been quite a lot of car pileups after the event and quite a few air crashes, but when everyone returned there was no one in danger. Four weeks had been enough time to get things back as they were before. There was one change though, the weather began to change again, apparently, the explosion pushed Earth in yet another axis, though this one was closer to it's original position. That meant that the weather was returning to a much more normal form than before.

SEELE didn't make any moves yet, it still waited for it's adversary, but they were preparing their forces, new beasts were being spawned, new angels to be exact, servants which would hopefully crush their enemy. Also, their project with cloned troops was also progressing, they had an enormous army under their command, just waiting to be awakened. They, knew that John would act pretty soon somewhere, he wouldn't give them to much time to start other plans with which to achieve their path to so called godhood. Their best plan at the moment was still to try and get their hands on the two children and their powers. Still only the top five members knew the whole truth, the rest were only puppets.

Gendo Ikari was also involved in the madness, though now he was pretty uninformed and as always following his impossible dream. He lacked a lot of information, he believed that Unit-01 and the Lance of Longinus were crashed on the Moon somewhere awaiting recovery. He knew that SEELE was planning something big but he didn't knew what. Still he was prepared for the failure of Instrumentality, as soon as his son was involved he knew that it would fail, thankfully for him he had a backup plan.

This plan involved an underground branch of NERV created right under SEELE's nose, hidden from them. It was built and prepared even from the days of old GEHIRN at Yui's suggestion in case they'd have to rebel SEELE openly. It was built in an unlikely place, the frozen Alaska, there, two more Evangalions had been prepared, he had moved there and he had begun scheming. He had to recover Unit-01 and find his son, as much as he hated depending on that boy, also he prepared pilots for the two units. Unit A and Unit B, officially they didn't exist, no one except for him and the base personnel knew of them, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi had followed him there, he gave her a purpose, she had nothing else to do.

John had discovered the hidden base, and he knew that before he could deal with SEELE, he had to deal with this lunatic first and his stupid plans. He knew that an open attack would be stupid, they'd cause an untold number of deaths pointlessly, and John didn't kill people like that. So he'd infiltrate the base and collapse it from within, this would be the perfect test mission for his two young apprentices.

--

As John was preparing the operational details and so on, the two before mentioned children were waking up. Since Shinji woke up they had been sleeping in the same bed, though aside from John no on knew that. As far as they were concerned it was a good thing, Misato would jump to conclusions immediately and they'd never hear the end of it.

"Come on Asuka, it's time for breakfast."Shinji pleaded, even though he knew that it was somewhat pointless.

"I'm too sleepy to get down."She said burying her head in his shoulder.

"So I take it that you want breakfast in bed?"He asked.

"That sounds like a good idea but no."She said yawning."I'd be asleep by the time you would get back."

"Then you don't leave me any options."He sighed and then picked her up."If you don't want to get down, I'll take you there."

"Now that's much better."She replied playfully as he carried her in his arms towards the kitchen."This is one morning routine to which I'll never get used to."

--

It was John's turn to cook today, he was the only one in the house who cooked besides Shinji and like the before mentioned boy he was an early riser. He heard Asuka giggling down the hallway so he knew that two of the houses residents were up. It would probably take another half hour for the second couple to get up, he was pretty used to some of their routines by now. He laughed when he saw Shinji carrying the fiery redhead in his arms and placing her in a chair before sitting himself next to her.

"That one I didn't see yet."He said smiling at the two."Morning you two, coffee as usual Asuka?"

"Yea, thanks John."She replied."So anything new on the job?"

"Yup, you two are actually going on a mission soon and I'll supervise in case something goes wrong."He said.

"Just the two of us?"Shinji asked, slightly nervous."That was unexpected, especially knowing how much you didn't want us to join in on your affairs."Asuka stated, she was surprised herself, but she wasn't worried.

"Well, I've taught you excellent fighting techniques and you're both a lot better with the light of the soul, especially since you're more used with the details of your powers. Plus, this mission is a side bonus, separate from our objectives regarding SEELE, this time, we're going after your father Shinji."

"So, you found him..."The boy replied in a bitter tone.

"Yes, we did and he didn't learn much from his experiences from what I can tell. So you two will capture him and we're bringing him here, I'm sure that your mother will have quite a pleasant chat with him."John said. Shinji chuckled, he knew that the chat would be anything but pleasant for father.

"Anyway, come to my office at 2 o'clock sharp, we'll discuss the mission then. It will be a good test and hopefully nothing will go wrong because of SEELE."He said in a neutral voice.I doubt that's likely, but who knows.

--

Fifty minutes after the announcement John had left, leaving Shinji and Asuka to think about the recent development. Meanwhile Kaji and Misato were also up and had joined them to eat breakfast, both of them noticed that the two were unusually quiet today, then again, they might be talking in a different way she thought. Even she learned some of the details on their powers, so she knew that thanks to Asuka, the two of them could talk telepathically, making the conversation impossible to listen to.

Lilith's powers were more concentrated on the mind and soul, they were spectacular and Lilith had developed them so that she could easily connect to others. Thus Asuka had a natural gift at reading minds and other tricks like that, also she was more inclined to massive displays of power. This was a good thing, because Asuka controlled the energy more easily than Shinji did, so in when they had to use massive energy blasts it was better to let her handle it. Unfortunately, this meant that her powers were less influential on her body, meaning that if you did manage to strike through her barrier and hit her, you could injure her more easily.

Adam's power was somewhat opposite, it worked far better channeled inwardly, fact which made Shinji in a surprisingly effective close quarter fighter. He couldn't do as many tricks as Asuka could and he was unable to heal anyone else aside from himself and Asuka, but he was very resilient. His body had developed it's own S2 organ, his heart was different, it was still beating but it had a different shape and it was a lot more resistant. Also, he regenerated in an angel like manner, as long as you didn't kill him, he just got back up no matter how severe his injuries were.

Shinji had another bonus, due to Adam's power he could control anything that was made from Adam, meaning other Evas if their souls were hiding. Also, he had the Lance, he took a part of it as his personal weapon and shaped it into a sword. The twin prongs became twin blades and the weapon which resulted could cut through other barriers as if they were butter. It was their best weapon against SEELE's minions and as much as John hated to admit it, Shinji was the only one who could truly use that weapon.

The two teens had passed trough intense training during the last few weeks, and they were a force to be feared. Their new powers combined with vicious fighting techniques were devastating, not to mention the two avatars, which so far were never tested to their full potential. Though until they entered a few battles it would be impossible to tell how much they have learned.

Meanwhile the silence had lasted for about 15 minutes and it was now obvious to Misato that the two were discussing something rather intently. She wasn't stupid, something must have happened and it was obviously related to their new jobs, most likely they were going to do something. So she decided to find out what was going out and see if there was anything that she needed to do.

"Ok you two, stop that, we're entitled to know what's going on as well!"

"It's non of your business!"Asuka said, as always her temper got the better of her.

"I'm not buying that."Misato said."So what got you two talking so much in your heads?"

'She's so annoying sometimes!' Asuka thought to Shinji.

'Maybe, but she's just looking out for us. I'll explain to her what's going on. You get our equipment ready in headquarters, I don't think it's going to take to long to get this mission started.' Shinji replied in the same manner.

'Agreed, I have a few things to say to the bastard as well!' Asuka thought back then left from the room. Shinji sighed knowing that Misato wasn't going to take this well.

"Ok, here's what's going on. John has located my father in a base somewhere, we're going to get him soon, maybe even today if we can convince him. This mission will involve only me and Asuka, maybe some clean up crews after we're done with the place. We were talking about the situation... and about my father..."

"Oh... YOU'RE GOING TO WHAT?!"Misato yelled.

"Oh boy this is going to be a long morning..."Shinji said."Listen we'll have to be at a briefing at 2 o' clock. So if you don't mind, I'd like to spend the rest of the morning in a more quiet fashion."

"Listen, the idea is stupid! With SEELE searching for you it's not a good idea to go out alone!"Misato said.

"I doubt we'll be alone out there. We'll be doing the MISSION alone, but I'm sure that John and who knows what else will be in the area. Plus, there will be other people there as well, I'm sure we won't just leave them there. Then again, for all we know my father could be in a cottage somewhere planning his revenge or something like that."Shinji quickly spoke, trying to calm down Misato, the woman was like an older sister or a mother, but ever since Third Impact she had been overprotective of the two.

"He's right you know."Kaji chimed in."There's no way that John would let anything happen to these two. Plus, don't forget, they're anything but defenseless."

"But..."

"No buts!" Shinji cut her of. "We have to do this and it's final. This is the only way we can know how ready we truly are. Not to mention that we'll have to fight SEELE eventually, this job should be a piece of cake compared to what they have. If we can't handle this there's no way we will ever be able to face of against SEELE and their forces."

"Fine, but come back in one piece."Misato said.

"Don't worry, Asuka's to good to get in trouble, as for me, as long as I have my heart intact, I'll recover."Shinji said then stood and left from the kitchen.

"I don't like this one bit Kaji."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure that they know what they're doing. These two have stopped being kids a long time ago." Kaji replied.

--

John met the two teens in his office, it was a relatively small room, designed to be functional. It had a holographic display in the center, a desk in the back with several files on it and a picture. The picture was that of John, a woman and two children a boy and a girl, all seemed really happy. Aside from this there were two more computer terminals and four chairs near the right wall. John was near the display which wasn't showing anything at the moment when the two teens approached him in their armors.

John had designed some rather interesting suites for the two former pilots, they were similar to the plug suits in the sense that they were skin tight. Still, that wasn't visible from the outside as these suits were armor plated and held special equipment within. Thus these were nowhere near as revealing as the old suits, but they were just as flexible if not more, allowing the wearer to move nearly just as easily as if they didn't wear anything.

True to her old habits, Asuka's armor was bright red, at her back could be seen a staff, but you'd have to be an idiot to believe that it was the real weapon. The staff was merely the retracted form of her weapon of choice, the extended form being far more vicious. Asuka had grown to like more exotic weapons during her training, thus she was now working with one. When the weapon was extended, at one end it grew a scythe blade at the other it had a more regular spear end. The weapon was deadly and Asuka used it to keep her targets at a distance while she used her energy to finish them of.

Shinji's armor was in the same color as his plug suit had been, the only thing unusual was a short 'stick' hanging by his waist. It was red and it seemed to be about the same length as the handle for a large sword. John knew that it was a piece of the lance, and it to was retracted, in full size the stick became a nasty sword which Shinji used with deadly accuracy. The boy was more direct than the German girl, he 

would charge his enemies straight on and because of his unnatural strength it was unwise to attempt to tackle him in close combat. You could try to keep out of his range, but that would prove to be a problem as he and the girl could fly.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are eager to get to work. Truth be told I hoped that you would get ready like this. I'd like to get this over with as soon as this briefing is over, the sooner we end this the better. Any objections so far?"

"No sir!"The two teens replied in unison.

It's so annoying when they do that! John thought to himself but simply sighed and went on. "Here's the situation, there's a base in Alaska, that's where our primary target is. Still, the base is pretty big and there's more than guards defending it. It seems that Gendo has two more Evangelions under his control along with two more pilots. The Evas have to be disabled and their cores must be recovered to retrieve the souls inside. Also, the pilots must be brought back as well.

Thus your job will be to get in there, disable everything, especially the Evas and capture the main target. We have a complete plan of the base as it was easy to crack their computers and obtain them. Thus you two should have no difficulties in finding your way in that place and achieving your objectives. Once you succeed report to me and we'll get phase two going.

We won't be going alone at this, I'm bringing 60 war mechs and several support ships with us. All of us will be taking out their respective avatars, but you two will leave yours behind and only call them to your side if you need them. Though if you're lucky, Shinji might be able to deactivate the other two Evas without any difficulties, that depends on the souls which reside within them. The support forces will hold back under a stealth field until you two are done. Then phase two begins and we take over the base and evacuate all personnel, and clean up the place, to be honest we'll erase the facility from that face of the Earth. Any questions?"

"How about when do we get going?"Asuka asked with a sarcastic tone.

John sighed, this was going to be a complicated day."In thirty minutes, but just don't kill anyone if you can avoid it. Any mistakes can be repaired, but when you take someone's life, it's over for them."

"We won't, but I won't make any guarantees about my father."Shinji said in a menacing tone."He'll surely struggle to the last moment and accidents happen. I have no intention to kill him, only my mother has the right to decide what happens to him."

"Very well, then make those final preparations and get in your avatars."John said.

--

In Alaska, near the base, a dark shadow appeared on the ground, but no one was around to notice it. From the shadow a few shuttles came out, they flew and formed a circle around the shadow then deployed their stealth fields, thus hiding the area from any sensors. Then, the giant shapes of the avatars came out followed by the war mechs and several support ships. All three avatars lined up and kneeled, then their respective pilots came out.

"Ok, how are communications holding?"John spoke in his communicator, then waited as the team leaders and several key personnel made their reports."Good, let's get this show on the road people. Also, if there are any bets on please let me on, I'd like to place some wagers myself."He then listened as a lot of stuttering filed the lines.

"I don't even want to know..."Asuka grumbled."Good thing this armor has environmental protection, it looks damn cold in here."

"Don't insult my people's work."John replied trying to look serious."What did you think? That these are just armor plated plug suits?"

"Yea, yea, what ever, can we get to work already? We're just wasting time here right now."She replied.

"Can't you wait a few minutes?"He asked."These people are your back-up and unlike the UN or JSSDF they're quite effective. So stop complaining. Or maybe you'd like me to discus certain night activities with a certain former major?"

"You wouldn't!" Asuka hissed."It's not like we did anything!"Shinji was quick to back her up.

"I will if you two don't wait!" He replied."I know both of you have a few pretty good reasons to want to go and tear that place to pieces with your powers, but don't forget that SEELE isn't on vacation. They're waiting for us to make a move and they'll kill all of us if we make the wrong one. So don't annoy me. It's bad enough that you're here."

"Fine, fine." Asuka grumbled.

"He has a good point of view you know."Shinji said placing his hands on her shoulders from behind."I know, it's just that I don't get how you can be so calm about this. After all he did to you... I don't know how you don't want to kill that man. I know I do!"

"I don't know, maybe I want to give him a second chance, I don't know really. What I do know is that I do have some things in common with him."Shinji said with a cold voice."We both tend to run away from our problems."

"That was before."Asuka said turning to face him."Now you're facing your problems. Plus, you always were a better man than he was. Even when you were running, you thought about how others felt, about the consequences. Your father never did that, he just chased after his goal disregarding anything in his path. You weren't that bad, you came back, you at least tried."

"Maybe... but until I face him, I won't be able to settle this."He replied darkly.

Only the wind was heard as Sanctuary's forces prepared for the operation to take place. There was no tension in the air though, everyone knew that compared to what would follow, this mission would probably be easy even if they had complications. Only three people were lost in thought about what would happen here, two were about to go into battle in a way they never had before and the third was worried about his newest students.

"Ok you two, move out, you can proceed in any way you want, you have all the time you need, so don't so anything stupid."John broke the silence after what seemed to be an eternity. The two simply nodded and left towards the base where their objective awaited.

--

A guard was dozing of near the southern entrance of the base, it wasn't for no reason, the job was really boring and who the hell was going to bother them in this place? The man knew all too well that if someone really wanted to get in, they would get past one guard and his colleague on duty with ease. So he was almost in shock when two figures walked up to him at a slow even pace. He never saw anything stranger in his life, the two seemed almost alien in the technological armors and the helms didn't allow him to see their faces.

"Stop there, this place is of limits! I am authorized to use deadly force if you come any closer!"He yelled, hoping that it couldn't come to that. He felt very afraid all of a sudden when he looked at the red individual. They stopped and their helms retracted in the rest of the suit, revealing them to be human.

"I suggest that you leave this place, it's going to get really messy!"The boy with the dark hair and deep blue eyes stated. He looked the guard right in the eye, his gaze was full of determination, no fear what so ever, there was also mercy in the eyes. Still, orders were orders, he didn't get paid to be scared away by children.

"You can't use a gun that doesn't work and you can't block a person with a broken gate."The girl with the red hair said obviously annoyed with the guards hesitant attitude. She raised her right hand in a swift movement and then the gate behind him exploded in a red light. The shock wave flew the guard of his feet and knocked his gun out of his hands. Several more explosions followed, but those were simply meant to cause damage to the building. The poor man was almost out, so he simply watched the two.

"That was a bit over board don't you think? I mean, we don't need a hole that large Asuka!"

"I have a lot of pent up anger!"She replied admiring her recent work.

"God have mercy on anything in her path..."Shinji said as they started walking again."I'll go get father, you cause some mayhem around the base and maybe find the other pilots."

"Ok, see you when we get back, be careful!"She said.

"I will!" He replied and then they went of in opposite directions.

--

During that time, Gendo was on the command deck of the base when the alarms started blaring of. Everyone slightly panicked but they quickly recomposed themselves as soon as they noticed his glare."Status report!"He demanded, remaining unfazed.

"Intruders have broken in trough the south gate, the gate is completely destroyed!"One tech shouted.

"We have visual on the intruders!"Another tech reported.

"On screen!"He called, remaining unfazed during the entire situation, he was very annoyed at how cowardly his current work force was.

Still, what he saw did faze him, even if you'd have to look for it to know see that he reacted. Gendo was genuinely shocked for the first time in a long time, what he was seeing seeming simply impossible to believe. On one half of the screen he saw his son in a blue and white armor, reminding him of the plug suit the boy wore before. He was walking down a corridor when three members of the security team showed up before him. They raised their guns and started shooting at him, but the bullets never made it, they were stopped by what seemed to be a blue AT field. The boy stopped clearly unimpressed at the attempt to stop him.

"Blue pattern detected, it's coming from the boy!" A tech shouted."My God! Is he an angel?"

Gendo heard the man but he didn't acknowledge him, he was thinking about what he was seeing. The boy he was seeing, so calm and determined could not be his son, the AT field seemed to prove that point. Still, he didn't know how the explain this, it was impossible for SEELE to create a clone of his son with such powers without changing his appearance. That was the reason for which Rei didn't look exactly like Yui, the angel DNA changed her appearance drastically, making her pale, changing the color of her hair to blue and her eyes to red.

These thoughts passed in a matter of seconds as the security forces emptied their clips at the boy, simply wasting ammo against his shield. He swiped his right arm in front of himself and a shock wave flew from it throwing the men against the wall behind them, knocking them out. The boy shook his head at the sight then continued to walk towards his destination. He didn't seem to hurry one bit, he also seemed relaxed for some reason or another.

"Get the pilots to their Evas! We'll need them to neutralize his AT field." Gendo ordered.

"They're already on their way!" One of the previous techs yelled.

Gendo continued to watch his son, or what ever it was that looked like his son making it's way slowly towards its destination. The other intruder was being tracked only through the damage it was doing, it was destroying the corridors and thus every single piece of surveillance equipment they could use. It didn't make any sense, no normal weapon would allow it to do so, but if it used an AT field they should have detected it more or less. Still, at least its intentions were obvious, it was headed for the Eva cages.

"Our forces are to stop the second target by any means necessary, if it reaches the cages we're going to close to defeat!"Gendo ordered, without betraying any emotions as always. Still, despite his facade, he was worried about the situation. This wasn't looking well and he had no idea what he was dealing with or what sent them.

--

Asuka was releasing all of her pent up anger at the moment, she didn't loose track of her objective but she was going to "have some fun" on the way as well. Of course being pissed and having mind numbing powers isn't the safest combination in the world. The truth was she never had any intention to hide herself, but because of her emotions, her powers were wrecking everything, she barely had enough control to avoid useless killing. Still it was no surprise that she was angry, this was the base of the bastard that manipulated her and Shinji all for the sake of joining his wife in a fake reality.

She was quite happy that Shinji decided to face the bastard himself, because she wouldn't have had the self control to avoid killing him in cold blood. So she laid waste to the base, the light of her soul was discharging like a storm of red fire upon the corridors and the security forces ran from her path, no ones orders were worth facing that kind of threat. Asuka wasn't paying much attention to how fast she was moving so soon she found herself at the entrance to the cages.

She blew of the reinforced door without so much as looking at it, she noticed that one of the Evas was missing and that the other was, just about to be manned. The pilot was being assisted into the plug by non other than doctor Akagi, but that didn't last long. Asuka used her powers to rip the plug to shreds and throw both doctor Akagi and the unknown pilot and the bridge before the EVA.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you!" She said with a menacing voice, while staring the two down.

"Asuka is that you?" Ritsuko asked."How the hell?!"

"Dr. Akagi? You're working for the bastard again?! Scheisse! Talk about dum blonds!" Asuka replied highly annoyed by the doctor's stupidity.

"Um... Dr. Akagi, who is she?" The shocked pilot asked.

"She is or at least looks like the Second Child, Asuka Langley Sohryu."The doctor replied.

"What do you mean LOOKS LIKE?! Who else would I be?! Are you stupid?! I swear, not even Shinji before Third Impact was that dense. Just because I have new tricks doesn't mean I'm someone else you know!" Asuka ranted.

"Yup, she's Asuka..."Ritsuko said while the German girl was busy swearing in her native tongue.

"How do you know for sure?"The boy asked.

"Trust me Kenji, I know for sure, only Asuka can swear like that..."The faux blond replied.

"O...kay... good thing I don't understand then."Kenji replied.

"What? You want me to swear at you in Japanese as well? Oh forget it, where's the other EVA? I know for a fact there are two and I don't want Shinji to be forced to fight it."Asuka said with a slight hint of urgency.

"Shinji's here too?! Oh my God, he must be the second target! The EVA was launched to capture him!" Ritsuko yelled.

"Damn, I was too late... He'll probably be forced to use his Avatar... Tell me, does the other pilot know about the soul within the EVAs?"The redhead asked.

"No, she doesn't, but what difference does it make? There's no way Shinji can defeat an EVA on foot!"Ritsuko said.

"Actually... he can, though I'm hoping that he can simply take control, like the 17th did with my unit. If it's one thing Shinji can't handle, it's hurting innocents..."Asuka replied.

"Asuka is that really you? You sounded like you care... about Shinji of all people."Dr. Akagi said, not quite believing her ears.

"Why wouldn't I care for Shinji?" Asuka asked, forgetting that Dr. Akagi had no idea what was going on between her and the before mentioned boy. Ritsuko nearly, fainted after hearing that.It's the end of the world... She thought.

--

Meanwhile, Shinji reached the Command Centre and was casually floating right towards his father with a relaxed but determined expression on his face. Gendo was rather frightened, but he hid the fact well, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, in his mind there was no way for this to happen. Still, no matter how hard he wished for it, he couldn't wake up from this apparent nightmare, no one can wake up from reality.

The wall to his right exploded, making room to an Evangelion, a large black and silver monster with three eyes. It's right hand was extended towards Shinji, but right before it could grasp him, it stopped. The Eva then ejected the plug and deactivated while the boy smirked at his father.

"One of the tricks Kaworu implanted in my subconscious was a way to control other EVAs which were made from Adam if their souls are dormant. Father, you lost, it's time to cut your losses and surrender!"

"Who are you?!" Gendo yelled, still not believing.

"Mother will be really disappointed when she'll hear that you didn't even recognize me... Surely you don't want to make her even angrier. Surrender the base and maybe she'll want to see you, but there are no guarantees. So what will it be father?" Shinji asked, hoping that he could end this without any more fighting.

"Yui is alive?"Gendo asked silently.

"In a way, but it will be a few years before she has her body back. You could still talk to her though."

"Everyone stand down, our forces will surrender, so everyone leave the bases premises." Gendo shouted in a microphone linked to the com. system, then he turned to Shinji."Now please take me to her."

"If she'll want to see you... Anyway, we'll find out."Shinji replied then he opened his com. link."John, this is Shinji, the base is ours, you can move in at any moment. The Evas are down and I'm right in front of my father. Over."

Roger that Shinji, we're moving out. Great job out there. Get the bastard out and take him back to Sanctuary, see if Yui wants to see him or not. Besides you, she's the only other person who has a right to judge him. Over.

I'm moving out too, see you top side Shinji.

"Roger Asuka, see you there."

With that settled, Shinji led his father towards the exit.

--

They found themselves out of the base fairly quickly, but both Shinji and Asuka felt something was amiss and simultaneously turned their heads to the right. They were looking for something, but they couldn't quite place the sensation, whatever it was, it wasn't good. Gendo caught the expression on both of their faces and so did the Sanctuary soldiers, they paused, knowing that something was wrong.

The two avatars suddenly landed in front of the two teens, they called them out of reflex, the information implanted in both of their subconscious told them that an enemy was approaching an angel like enemy. Before any one could say anything they jumped in the other half of their bodies and raised their heads. Shinji withdrew the enormous lance turned into a sword and gazed into the horizon, Asuka 

raised her scythe like weapon and all of her four eyes glowed with a furious red color as she spotted their targets.

Flying towards them was a group of 7 enemies, 6 beasts like the one that attacked them at the beach and a seventh one, more humanoid, resembling a normal avatar. Asuka remembering her ordeal at the MP EVAs wanted to shred the escort first, to unleash her rage. Shinji was worried about the seventh figure though, as his memory fragments from Adam recounted him as the Fifth among the five councilmen that once served the so called angel. It was rather obvious what he was doing here, either he discovered their intervention and decided to take care of things, or he wanted a word with his father who betrayed SEELE before.

Either way it was improbable that they were expecting three avatars, because John joined them rather quickly drawing two swords himself. Asuka, impatient as ever threw all of her power and rage into her avatar and forced it to grow a pair of bright red wings with metallic feathers. She took of at such a blinding speed that the first beast she encountered was sliced from head to toe without the slightest chance of retaliating.

"These bastards are mine!" She said with a tone that made it all too clear that there was no room to argue. Of course that left the real threat at the hands of John and Shinji.

"So they have their own avatars..." Shinji commented.

"Did you expect things to be different?"John asked.

"Not really, let's get the bastard, Asuka is more than capable of handling his damned escort. They were pretty stupid to make their base soldiers resemble the MP EVAs."Shinji said.

"Well what do we have here? Three avatars and one which looks stunningly similar to Unit 02, now that's a shocker, I didn't expect this kind of welcome when I decided to come and personally collect the traitorous Gendo Ikari." A snide voice entered the communication.

"It's quite convenient that you would show up, you damned traitor towards all of humanity."John said with an edge to his voice."It spares me the effort of tracking you down to kill you. You deserve death since you are too far gone to even be considered human."

"You again... so we were right, it was you who intervened in our plans, then again who else would lead Sanctuary. What name do you go by this time?"The man asked landing his avatar in front of Shinji's and John's while the remaining five units of his escorts were engaging Asuka.

"Let the remaining pathetic followers of SEELE know that for now I go by the name of John, not that it matters. You people always refer to me as the Guardian anyway."John said in a dismissive tone as if he was talking to a minor nuisance.

"Don't use that tone to me... hm.. interesting, Adam's weapon, that means I'm looking at the avatar of the Third Child, the one that received our former master's gifts. That would make my guess correct... It seems that the ones we were looking for are looking for us as well... This is the perfect opportunity to tie up some lose ends!"He finished with a dangerous undertone. His avatar had four arms and a tail covered with spikes. It's armor was metallic grey and on his chest it had the Tree of Sephiroth painted in bright red. The avatar had on menacing eye and the helm was designed similar to that of Unit 00 only that it had a horn above the eye, which was rather sturdy and could easily be used as a weapon. All of the four arms extended claws from the knuckles and side blades from the wrists. Then it lunged forward towards John in an incredibly swift lunge.

John was almost instantly airborne allowing Shinji to strike their enemy from the side with his sword. During the training he received, Shinji adapted his techniques for fighting in an avatar as well. Since he was physically orientated, he was able to make his avatar move with speeds that defied any logic, faster than his current enemy. Obviously, his adversary didn't have time to properly get out of the way and raised his AT field while trying to move. Of course that move proved pointless as Shinji's sword only accelerated while absorbing the energy of the field allowing him to make a deep cut in the enemy's right side.

The 5th member of SEELE staggered and that allowed John to drop on his back and drive both of his sword through the shoulders while using the blade tentacles to try and immobilize him. Their enemy wasn't so easily defeated as he used the light of his soul to cover his body in flames, forcing John to let go and jump back. At the same time as John was jumping back, Shinji charged forward driving his sword through the upper left chest. The enemy avatar released energy from it's soul, then channeled it through the eye forming a beam of focused energy that blew a small but painful hole through Shinji's left shoulder.

Though in pain, Shinji still had enough focus to order his weapon to change it's shape, forcing the twin blades to pivot up and down respectively, cutting trough the shoulder and completely severing both left arms. His enemy struck in rage with its' remaining right arms, the upper one causing deep cuts in the left side of his head and the lower one causing a deep cut over his abdomen from left to right. This caused Shinji to stager back, but his enemy didn't get the chance to do anything more as two swords impaled themselves into it's body from behind. One passed through it's head and exited trough the eye, the other passed trough the spine and exited through the chest right through the core, killing the bastard that was inside and permanently disabling the avatar.

--

Meanwhile, the remaining soulless avatars were circling Asuka's own avatar in the sky. Inside the core, Asuka had her eyes closed and she was waiting for a few seconds. She was angry, very angry and she wasn't going to leave much out of these creatures. When she opened her eyes they were blazing red and with her so did her avatar's eyes open. She didn't hesitate and released a beam of red energy towards the beast before it, the beam pierced its chest and core, causing a massive explosion in the sky. There four left, and they charged, hoping that their numbers would allow them to strike.

Asuka gathered her avatar's wings around herself, floating only because of the energy she was releasing. When the beasts were close enough she opened her wings quickly, also releasing a wave of red flames and metallic spikes from them. All of them were thrown back while also being damaged by the attack. Still, Asuka didn't stop there, taking advantage of their confusion, she blasted another one of the beasts from her avatar's eyes and killed it. There were now three left.

The last three regrouped and started a full on frontal assault, gathering speed towards her. It was the most suicidal thing they could have done and Asuka was well aware of that. She drew energy from her absurd powers, courtesy of Lilith and summoned a massive cross explosion that would have put the 14th angel to shame. The three remaining attackers were blown to pieces, their bodies were incinerated from the massive release of energy, leaving nothing behind.

She turned her gaze downwards, looking at the leftover corpse from the other avatar that faced Shinji and John. That's when she also noticed the injuries sustained by Shinji's avatar, apparently the enemy was tougher than she had imagined. Asuka landed, worried about Shinji now that her head was clear of bloodlust.

"Shinji, are you alright?" She asked. "I'm alright, more or less, it hurts like hell though."

"I warned you, you feel everything your avatar feels, as if you were at full synch." John added. "This went better than I expected, one of the five is dead, so this is a greater victory than I had anticipated."

"He's… dead?" Shinji asked.

"I'm afraid so Shinji. With them, we have no other options, we'll have to kill them, as disturbing as it is. You can settle for just disabling them, I'll do the killing." John replied.

"Good… I don't think I could handle killing another human, especially after what happened with Kaworu or Adam…" Shinji said. "So this wraps it out eh? How did we perform John?"

John didn't mind the change in the subject, knowing that Shinji needed it. Poor kid, he has no idea in what he and his girlfriend got themselves into. As sad as it is, it's the only way to end this, the sacrifice will have to be made in the end… john thought before replying. "You both performed beyond my expectations, now let's get back to base and get these people to safety before SEELE tries to strike once more."

"Good, I need to cool of after this…" Asuka replied as a large Dirac sea opened on the ground for the troops and their prisoners to move out. They all went in and returned to Sanctuary.

--

"Now what?" Shinji asked as he Asuka and John went out of the avatar hangars. "Now we sort out all of these people while also allowing Gendo to rot for a day or two in a cell. After that, we take him up to Yui and the two of you can decide his fate. What ever happens with him, we'll be interrogating him anyway since there is a bigger reason for which SEELE bothered to take his existence into account than the fact that he tried to betray them. We need to find out what that is and use it to get rid of the last remaining four councilors of Adam." John replied.

"Then we wait right?" Asuka added.

"Basically yes. You two go and get some rest, even if you don't need it, you've earned it. Everything went according to plan, if not better." John said. "I'll let you guys know when we have to move out once more. Just keep in mind that this is just beginning and we have yet to see SEELE's worst."

"Is it really that bad?" Shinji asked. "How powerful can they be?"

"Not as powerful as you two, neither one of them can surpass either of you, but together they might prove to be a challenge for us if they play their cards right. What happened now was a mistake on their behalf, they weren't expecting to run into us out there or to find that the two of you have your own avatars. Plus, now they know, so they'll be better prepared next time." John said in grim voice. "To make matters worse, the fact that they know that the two of you are active in the war might compel them to take drastic actions here or there to try and force us to come out of hiding."

"What could they do, they can't really threaten us in here…" Asuka here. "Even if they'd find a way in through a miracle, they'd be doomed if they tried to attack Sanctuary directly."

"Yes, but they can still try to force our hands by lets say threatening this place or that with their forces. As you know, conventional weapons aren't a match for an AT field. You guys needed all of the power of Japan to handle a soulless creature that projected an AT field, connected only to Adam's soul. One of them is truly invincible to normal weapons, and so are we." John said. "I believe that it's only a matter of time until they set us up and force us to move out to prevent them from devastating some part of the world."

"What kind of monsters are they? To be willing to kill people like that as long as their purposes are achieved, it's just so monstrous." Shinji said. "It's just so unbelievable…"

"You have much to learn about humanity Shinji, of anything that has a soul and a choice for that matter…" John said.

"What did you mean with the last bit?" Shinji asked, since the tone was a bit strange, he knew that John was implying something.

"The soul isn't necessarily human, we define what human is by the body. Technically speaking, neither one of us is human, since we have a second body bonded to us, which is anything but human, that and Asuka has a nice pair of red wings now."

Asuka after coming out of the avatar had discovered that what John said was true, the wings she grew on her avatar were present on her back as well, even if they were a bit different. Those on the avatar gave the impression of being mechanical, armor plated weapons of doom, the ones on Asuka's back were still red, but they looked far more like the phoenix wings. She had no idea if she could retract them or anything, but for now she wanted to leave them as they were, she liked how they looked.

"Well, I just acted on impulse…" She replied. "I knew that my normal flying abilities wouldn't have been enough to deal with those things, so I grew these to improve my performance."

"It doesn't matter." Shinji replied while placing an arm around her, careful not to bother the aforementioned wings. "They suit you."

"I always did have fashion sense, this is just taking things to another level." Asuka said with a chuckle.

"Now all we have to see is what Shinji will cook up, especially since he's the one who's orientated towards physical combat." John added.

"I don't plan on growing anything out of my body until I actually need something." Shinji replied. "There's no point in trying to do something like that without knowing what I really need. I don't have enough experience with this stuff to risk it."

"Wise choice, you're learning fast…" John said but trailed of when Asuka suddenly gained on expression that spelled impending doom. "What?"

"I just remembered that Misato's home and that she'll want to know how the mission went seeing as she wasn't involved in this one. You do realize how she'll react when she'll see these right? I'll never hear the end of it!" Asuka said.

"Well, look at the bright side, Touji and Kensuke can't really call you Devil anymore now can they." Shinji added. "Now you're an angel in more ways than one."

"Oh you." Asuka replied playfully.

John was content to just roll his eyes and get going, he had his own troubles to deal with. This had been Sanctuary's first true military operation since the rescue mission in Tokyo-2 didn't really count in his opinion. All in all it went better than he had expected, despite the damage sustained by Shinji's avatar. He knew that if either Shinji or Asuka could use their full powers, they could end this fairly quickly and stop this useless war once and for all. Still, it would take too long for their powers to naturally awaken, they needed something else, an emotional shock, one which he knew how to provide in a much shorter time.

When all of this had begun, he had no intention to use them like this, he didn't want to use them at all, but if things went as he planned, then it would all be for the good of everyone, except for one person who would have to die. John sighed as he thought of that part, he'd probably cause a lot of pain with that move, but it was truly the only way. His only regret was that he didn't think things in different light before the angel wars began, then maybe all of this could have been prevented.

--

Meanwhile Asuka and Shinji had arrived at the villa and were greeted by a rather impatient Misato, who proceeded to faint at the sight of Asuka with wings. Even she had a limit to the weirdness she could see and absorb without a mental shock. Asuka looking like some sort of angel with flaming wings holding a large scythe like weapon was not one of them.

Shinji just shook his head and raised Misato of the ground with the help of an AT field, he had tried to convince Asuka not to try this, but she was far too stubborn to give in. On the way home she decided that she would scare the crap out of Misato so she would think twice before starting to tease her about the wings. In retrospect, Shinji had to admit that he didn't try too much to convince her, the teasing they had been through on the older woman's behalf had been annoying. So he didn't do a thing when Asuka light her wings with red flames and extended her weapon looking like she wanted to kill the first thing that got in her way.

Clearing his head of thoughts, Shinji placed Misato on a couch in the main living room at floor level and joined Asuka in the kitchen to prepare a bite to eat. He didn't need to eat anything and neither did Asuka, but they still had the habit of eating, plus, there's always the taste to keep in mind. Still, they both knew that their own S2 organs would keep them alive in any natural conditions, including the void of outer space if they had to survive up there. As Shinji cooked dinner, Kaji entered the kitchen and sat himself at a chair.

"So I take it that the mission went well." He said, not looking at Asuka, thus missing the wings.

"Better than we expected actually." Asuka replied, that's when Kaji turned towards her and noticed the wings. He was grateful that he wasn't eating or drinking anything, because he would have chocked for sure at that sight. "Were the wings part of the mission objectives or something?" Kaji asked, not really knowing what to make of them.

"Not exactly, I just needed them in a fight so I grew them out." Asuka replied while setting the table for Shinji who was just finishing his cooking. "They're pretty useful, but I'll most likely have to cut some slits in most of my clothes that cover my upper body if I want to wear them with the wings drawn out, especially since I'm not sure if I can pull them back in."

"Well, they look nice." Kaji commented. "Did you two run into Misato? She was really anxious about this whole affair." At that Asuka grinned evilly, but said nothing while Shinji just sighed before replying. "She's out on the couch, Asuka pulled a little trick on her and caused her to faint." At that Kaji chuckled a bit. "Well, I did warn her that you guys would get her back one of these days after all she said."

It was then that the doorbell ringed, it was most likely Hikari or the "two stooges" as Asuka still called the Shinji's friends. They joined them from time to time for dinner due to John's invitation during the party. It could also be professor Fuyutsuki who received the same invitation. Sarah also dropped by from time to time, but she had her own key for some reason or another, still, no one asked up until now.

Kaji went to get the door and quickly returned with Hikari, Touji and Kensuke in tow, the first tow standing rather close to each other, but that was perfectly normal. When they came in the kitchen, the effect of Asuka's new additions was instantaneous and identical on all three. Their jaws dropped as they stared in shock at her just as Shinji seated her for dinner.

"Hi guys." Shinji said then noticed their looks, he sighed, here was an explosive situation if you ever saw one. If either Touji or Kensuke made the wrong move, then they were both pretty much dead, or at the very least they'd receive a long stay at the hospital. Asuka was very touchy when it came to her looks.

"Asuka, what happened? Where did the wings come from?" Hikari was the first to recover from her shock and start speaking.

"I needed a little boost during the mission and so I grew these. How do they look?" Asuka asked and then spread her wings around as much as she could.

"They look beautiful." Hikari said in awe. "I can't believe this, they look so real…"

"They are real." Asuka said. "Go ahead and touch them." Hikari made her way to Asuka and hesitantly trailed her fingers over Asuka's left wing. The wings were soft and smooth, the feathers were displayed in perfect order and the color had a striking flame pattern to it. When Asuka would fly with them, they would literally look like a pair of giant flames that carried her through the air.

As for Touji and Kensuke, they were silently recovering from the shock and began talking a bit. Shinji kept an eye on them, ready to intervene in case either of them was going to say or do something stupid. Asuka was very likely to blow them up with a cross flare if they irked her. He knew that she wouldn't kill them, but she would badly injure them and not to mention that she would most likely ruin the kitchen as well. Shinji doubted that John would appreciate that.

"Touji, I'm seeing the weirdest thing in my life…" Kensuke whispered, partly because earlier they had both learned that both Asuka and Shinji had also gained very good hearing.

"I'm seeing it too Ken, I'm seeing it too." Touji whispered back.

"So Asuka has wings…" Kensuke whispered.

"Yup, it seems like it…" Touji replied.

"What do we do about it?" Kensuke asked, when they both felt a hand on their shoulder. They jumped in fear then looked behind them, seeing Shinji who shook his head.

"Don't DO that man!" Touji said while holding his right hand over his chest.

"Why don't we all eat dinner before it gets cold? As for Asuka, if you do anything stupid around her, she'll blast you with a cross flare and I doubt I can stop her in time. So be nice and act normally, otherwise you'll surely have to make a long trip to the hospital." Shinji said directing the two to their usual chairs while in John's home.

"Yea, sure." Touji said. "Hey, isn't John joining us?"

"I don't think he is." Shinji replied. "He probably has some things to do after the mission we just had. It will be a wonder if he gets home at all tonight knowing how much he wants to help the people he himself rescued."

"Oh." Touji replied, before realizing what was odd in what Shinji said. "Wait, you guys were on a mission?"

"Yea, John found my father and we went to retrieve him. He was holed up in Alaska in a seemingly secret NERV base. We weren't the only ones to get to him though, SEELE dropped in as well, but we handled them. My avatar took some damage, but nothing to serious like some of the other times I fought. As for Asuka, she took out 6 of those beasts herself with no damage whatsoever. She needed the wings to handle them, so she grew them out." Shinji recounted, not bothering with the details of the fight in the base itself.

"You're being too modest Shinji, the only reason you got injured was the fact that that you fought one of the five." Asuka said.

From there it degenerated into a lot of questions from the three visiting teens and one supervising adult. They were joined a bit later by Misato who had her own questions to ask. All in all it had been a good day for Shinji and Asuka, the mission went well and they had returned to their new home safely. Though Asuka silently thanked John for being there with them, she knew that Shinji wouldn't have handled that man by himself and even if he could, he wouldn't have been able to finish the job, even she didn't know if she could have handled it, killing someone else like that.

All present at the table knew that this was just the beginning of this war, or what ever it was and things would probably get harder sooner or later. What no one knew was what had to be done for the war to end in a quick fashion, no one knew of the secret plan known by only one man. A plan that would save the world, even if at a very high price for that person and those that knew him…..

To be continued…

Well, this was the 5th chapter, read and review and if you don't like it, please be more specific than "You n00b, you suxxorz" and stuff like that. If you do want to flame me, then send me a PM or something... no reason to waste review space with spam material. Also, the 6th chapter is up on evamade. I know this may seem annoying, but that I discovered that place before this site and I can arrange a document for that site in 5 min as opposed to a couple of hours or more here. So the 6th chapter will arrive here when the 7th will arrive there, which is in about 3 weeks.


	6. Chapter 6

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 6: Aftermath

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

A/N: Here's chapter six, you know the drill with me and this story... oh, and if you want some more details on my work, look at the notes at the end of the chapter.

Two days after the operation in Alaska went down, John decided that Gendo had enough time to rot in his cell and it was now time to have him brought face to face with Yui. To make the situation slightly more interesting, he was going to allow Shinji to take him there in any way he wanted to and at any time. John had done his job with Gendo, he had the man interrogated by one of his specialists. To be exact, in Sanctuary there were those individuals who were able to read and influence minds with ease, just like Asuka but nowhere near her level of power. Even so, the operation was done while the former NERV Commander slept, so he didn't exactly have any defenses against mental probes, not that being awake would have helped him by much.

Now John knew why SEELE bothered to attempt to get rid of Gendo and even send one of their own to deal with him. The man knew locations, many locations with SEELE's bases and hidden operations, but above all else, he knew where the Old Men themselves were hiding, their main base. With all that information, John had all he needed to make sure that those… creatures were dead for good. In his vision, those four were not worthy of being called men anymore and now he knew where he could get them.

That of course didn't mean that he could simply jump in there to try and kill them, there were other loose ends that had to be taken care of. Plus, he knew that at his current power level, he would be unable to deal with all four. The truth was that the only way all four could be defeated at once would be if either Shinji or Asuka awoke their true potential, and it wasn't time for that yet. So they needed more time, but he also had to ensure that SEELE didn't do something harmful to the world during the wait. So, since they had other locations as well, they would be able to act against SEELE, weakening them and ensuring that they would eventually be defeated. Thus, it was pretty much a matter of time.

Thankfully SEELE had a few places where they could strike somewhat safely and maybe even attempt to draw them out. At least SEELE didn't have the bonus of being hidden in a Dirac sea, safe from any outside attacks and free to expand as much as you wanted. What they did have was a real clone army and a bunch of avatars of their own, plus those damn creatures, which were probably mass produced as well. The facilities for these things were large though, and that meant that you couldn't keep all of them in one place. Obviously that meant that they had to spread them around the world, especially since there were limits to how much they could hide in one place without 

drawing attention to themselves. They still needed humanities support for the time being, seeing that they didn't have any other way of gaining the resources they needed.

SEELE was even now a parasitic organization, leeching the Earth of its resources to achieve its own goals. Sanctuary was self sustained, they used a simple trick to gain the resources they needed in what was basically a void. They turned energy into matter. Some would ask themselves if that was even possible, but the truth was that it was fairly common there. The method was used on the old Earth and it was latter used in the angels. You had to keep in mind that that S2 engine generated raw energy, not matter, to regenerate, you need matter of some sort. The angels had a method of transforming that energy into matter when they had to regenerate. The method works with the help of the AT field, so when transforming energy into matter in massive amounts, your field pretty much goes into over drive, which also explained why the "Angels" seemed to have very strong AT fields whenever they regenerated after an N2 strike for example or other massive injuries.

John sighed again, it would take a while to decide the best course of action, despite the fact that his new protégées were more than able to handle a lot of punishment thrown at them, especially inside their avatars. There were other factors to keep in mind as well, like the civilians in the area or the amount of collateral damage that could be done by simply operating with avatars in those areas. As long as he lived, Sanctuary's resources were never going to be used recklessly with the potential to cause avoidable harm to innocents, or at least bystanders if they weren't innocent. Dealing with SEELE could have been so simple if he wasn't stupid at the beginning of this.

What he didn't mention to the others when he began his story was the fact that he could have found and killed all of the SEELE members before the angel wars began, right after Second Impact. At that time they didn't have the armies or their powers, they were dying old men that could have been easily dealt with. Now though, they were back at full strength and they were probably young again as well, he wouldn't be surprised if the remaining four were just as young as he was now, at least physically.

If he would have killed them back then… all of this wouldn't have happened at all, the angel wars would have been different, as for Adam and Lilith… they might have lived up until now and might have had a chance to restart the war. It was all so confusing, all in all, John still blamed himself for what happened to Shinji and Asuka, he believed that he could have found a better way for all of this. Still, he didn't take the correct actions and got himself in a prolonged coma which also spread a temporary wave of panic in Sanctuary. There was no proper leadership in Sanctuary that was prepared to replace him should he die and leave no proper instructions. He would be forced to change that sooner or later. Just then, Sarah entered his office, she looked a bit angry and he had a feeling he knew the reason why. What most people didn't know was that in the command structure of Sanctuary, Sarah was not only a very talented doctor, but also his main advisor, thus she knew all of his plans.

"Hello Sarah, I know why you're here." John replied, he seemed tired, which was something rare for him.

"I'm here because of the plan you have, it's nothing like the initial plan and too insane compared to what I expected given this situation." Sarah replied angrily. "You can't do that! What will happen to Sanctuary if you do something like that?"

"It will survive, and so will most of humanity." John said. "What's more important? In your opinion at least?"

"Damn it John, if we can't prevent the loss of one life, how can we save the whole world?" Sarah asked. "Don't you realize what this could cause? To Sanctuary? To the Children?" Sarah went on, placing an emphasize on the word children. "Is it really worth it?"

"It is…" John replied. "You have to understand that the war would take too long otherwise and Earth would most likely be destroyed if Sanctuary would be forced to go on a full out war with SEELE's forces. Not to mention that there's no guarantee that we would win and survive as well. So this is the only real option, like this, at least I know that Sanctuary and Earth will survive and neither will have to go through extreme lengths to survive."

"Still… are you sure about it? Is there no other way?" Sarah asked in a pleading voice. "Surely this can be done somehow, without such a horrible sacrifice…"

John didn't reply immediately and looked at the photo he always had on his desk, he picked it up and placed his right hand over the woman in the picture. He placed the picture back and met Sarah's gaze steadily. "I believe that it's time for something like this. It's time for me to follow he onward. As my distant granddaughter, you can surely understand that. Even now, after so long, I look just as young as you do, yet you're only 200 years old."

"So it's finally that time my mother has warned me about…" Sarah whispered, John still heard her though but said nothing, because he knew all too well what she was talking about. Sarah smiled sadly. "We'll both regret this, though I'll probably regret it a lot more than you will…" After that, she turned and left the office, leaving John alone with his thoughts.

'Pain is a part of life Sarah, you know that all too well and you know the consequences as well. This is the only way…'

--

In another part of Sanctuary, Asuka was just waking up after another good night, one of the many nightmare free nights she had enjoyed after starting to sleep with Shinji. Her wings were spread out like a blanket, covering both of them. She discovered quite quickly that she could pull them in her body, but it wasn't comfortable so she kept them out all the time if she didn't have to hide them and in Sanctuary she never did. As she woke up, she noticed that Shinji was awake, but unlike other mornings he was staring at the ceiling. Asuka took a better look at him and she realized that the situation was different, in the sense that she could tell that he was thinking quite intently about something. What ever it was, it was important to him.

"Shinji? What's wrong?" Asuka asked. Shinji's eyes focused and he looked at her then sighed, but didn't reply immediately as if he was carefully considering his reply. Now Asuka was worried. Despite the glimpses she had of his mind, she didn't understand how Shinji's mind worked and she had no intention to poke around his head without his permission. She did teach him German by transferring knowledge in his head while he slept and he allowed her to learn how to properly read Kanji directly from his memories, but searching his thoughts like that was something different.

"Today I can get father out of his cell and take him to mother. Still, that's not the only thing I'm worried about here." Shinji replied. "It's something that John said… he said that we're not human after the mission, but when you talked to him before I woke up, he told you that he was human. What do you think he meant?"

"That bit confused me as well for a while, but if you really think about it, from the Old Earth point of view we're all perfectly human, but from today's point of view, we're anything but human." Asuka said after she rolled the question in her head for a few times. "I don't think it really matters anymore. Since all of humanity will evolve more or less like this eventually, I think the present definition of what human means will be outdated. Maybe we're neo-humans, I don't know and I don't care. It's this thing about your father that's really bothering you isn't it…"

"I suppose that you know me a well enough by now to tell." Shinji said with a slight chuckle and a smile. The smile faded quickly though. "I'm not sure about what I really want. I mean, a part of me wants to go to him and splatter him all over the walls with my powers for everything he did to all of us. On the other hand…"

"On the other hand you still love him." Asuka stated. "I know how that feels… It's normal I suppose, after all he's still your father, no matter what he did. What ever you do, I'll always stand by you, even if you kill him or set him free in the world." She raised her head and kissed him briefly but with intensity. "Just do what you feel is right. If anyone has a right to decide his fate, that's you."

"Thanks Asuka, I guess I needed that…" Shinji replied. "Well, I guess we better get up. I'm serving breakfast, then I'm off to face him."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"As much as I'd want you to be with me, this is something I have face on my own, so I can put some of my own demons to rest." Shinji replied after kissing her forehead. "He won't get of unpunished though…"

--

Gendo Ikari was not a happy man at the moment, he was quite distressed actually, but his face didn't show that. Even in these conditions, he attempted to keep his mask, the emotionless mask he had crafted for himself and worn for so long. Everything went to Hell as soon as that apparition that claimed to be his son came into his life, back in Alaska. Indirectly, it promised a shot at seeing Yui again, whether it was or wasn't his son was unimportant. He honestly didn't believe that it could be Shinji, how could his cowardly child become such a confident and capable warrior in such a short time? It seemed impossible, so therefore, what ever it was, it wasn't his son.

Gendo still had hope that he would see Yui eventually in life, if he didn't have that hope, he would have attempted to kill himself by now. He had been placed in a dark cell with no windows and apparently no doors either, he woke up there after falling asleep somehow. For how long he had been there, he had no real idea, the people that captured him had removed his watch and cell phone when they took him in, so it could have been any amount of time. What made things even more difficult was the fact that he didn't need to feed and he didn't receive any food since he had awoken. There were two possible explanations to that, one, he had been there a very short time, but he had no way of telling so it seemed a lot longer; two, for some reason his body didn't need food anymore for some reason.

You'd expect a rational man like the former Commander of NERV to ignore such an insane idea, but the truth of the matter was that after all he had seen, it wasn't really all that impossible. If those that captured him were experts with all that concerned angels and Evas as he suspected, then this wasn't all that impossible. They probably had their means of doing something like this. It would be a good tactic too, by denying him food while also keeping him alive, they deprived him the possibility of a routine which would allow him to measure time. He had to admit that who ever designed this system was rather brilliant. Before he could continue his thoughts on his strange situation, the wall before him shifted and a hole was formed in it.

Through the hole entered Shinji, the boy was dressed in casual clothes, but he wore the same red hilt at his belt. Gendo knew that it was a piece of the Lance of Longinus, but how it was possible, he didn't know. The hole closed and the two were isolated once more, neither of them spoke for what seemed like hours for both of them, even if in reality it was only minutes.

"I suppose that you still want to see her, right father?" Shinji asked.

"Yes." Gendo replied in a simple manner, they both knew who she was. Another awkward pause started, one of the two was pondering the situation, while the other was waiting impatiently.

"You know, it's ironic, how when this all began you were pulling most of the strings and you were playing me and the others like puppets. Now, you're at my mercy, waiting for my decision. I could even kill you if I wanted to, and no one might care." Shinji said as he took out the red hilt and morphed it into the extended double bladed claymore he used in battle. "No one would blame me if I did… They'd see it as a normal reaction after all I endured at your hands, after all you did to the ones I cared about, after what happened to the one I love because of your decisions and selfish desires. Heck, most would be surprised if you lived beyond this encounter, from what I heard, even Fuyutsuki bet that I'd kill you."

Shinji paused and took a few stances with the sword, then he proceeded to spin it around his body at a slowly increasing speed. He kept quiet as the speed of the blade was becoming faster and faster, until it was just a crimson blur around his body. The speed was so great that the blade was creating a small whirlwind in the enclosed room, Shinji seemed surrounded by a red aura, only his eyes could be clearly seen and they were glowing with an intense blue light. Gendo was pressed to the wall by the air current by now, but he desperately clung to his mask, in truth, he was afraid of the being before him, but he would never admit it. "How does it feel to know that you're helpless and so worthless that no one cares if you live or die?"

After saying that, something happened that Gendo would remember for the rest of his life, however long or short it may be. He didn't even have time to blink, because the wall behind him was suddenly full of cracks and the sword was near his head. The side of the blade was pressed to the left side of his skull, down to his skin, it was obviously embedded in the wall and it had struck with an impossible speed and strength. Shinji's face was very close to his own and his eyes were still glowing. "How does it feel to know that your life can end in an instant?"

Gendo slid down the wall trembling in fear, in all honesty, he had never faced something so fearsome in his life, not up close at least. Truly, what man could handle such a situation, especially if he's in his essence a coward, as strong as he seemed before all the others, Gendo Ikari was nothing more than a frightened man. Shinji leaned back and sniffed once, then started laughing. "So, I scared you with that didn't I? Now you know how I've felt for most of my life because of you!"

"You did all that simply to frighten me?" Gendo asked still in a state of shock.

"Well, that was one of the purposes, but the thing is, all that I said is true, so don't relax just yet. Your life hangs in the balance, one wrong step and you might push me over the edge to kill you." Shinji replied as he retracted the sword. "I don't need the sword to kill you either, I can simply splatter you with my AT field. Now, I'll get you a change of clothes and then I might take you to mother. As for the wall, I'll let you know that it's ten times stronger than the usual stuff you use for Evangelion armor. I thought you should know." With that Shinji left the cell and went to get his father a change of clothes, after all it wouldn't do to bring him like that to his mother.

--

Shinji was on his way to get his father and meanwhile his mind was racing. He had no idea how he managed to pull that of before the man that caused him so much pain. Well, he knew parts of the reason, after Third Impact, he had changed at such an alarming speed that often he felt that he couldn't even recognize himself. Shinji was glad for that fact, he didn't want to be what he was before and all that happened helped him to change. His new powers, his new outlook on life, Kaworu's and Rei's last words in Instrumentality, all that he saw, all of the training he received during the time he spent here at Sanctuary and the fact that some good did come out of what he did with the Instrumentality process had helped him a lot. Above all that was of course his new relationship with Asuka, it gave him a strength that he never imagined he could have.

So now he toyed around with Gendo, playing with his mind and scaring the crap out of him, literally. Shinji wasn't by any means a cruel person and he didn't enjoy making others suffer, but even he had his limits and Gendo had stepped way out of bounds during the Angel wars. Even though Shinji had no intention of killing the man, he was going to make him suffer a little, to get a taste of what he did to all those around him for years, long before the Angel wars even started. The question was if he would learn anything out of all this, would his father make himself worthy of a second chance? A full pardon? Shinji ended his musings as he entered his father's cell once more, it was time for the second stage.

"I see that you're ready. Come on, I'm taking you to mother, I have no idea what she'll be saying to you, but I do know that it probably won't be pleasant." Shinji chuckled as he said the last part. "Why so gloomy? Even I learned that being closed up like a shell only ensures that you suffer more."

"Who or what are you really?" Gendo asked, curiosity getting the better of him. "It's impossible for you to be my son."

Shinji stopped for a second and laughed, he laughed for a full minute before deciding to dignify his father with a reply. "I am your son, Shinji Ikari, but I changed so much that even I don't know myself, how could you recognize me? After all, you didn't know even the old me any more than the psych profile that told you that I was fit to damn the world to hell just so that you would get a fake chance of being with my mother."

"How do you know all of this? What could change you so much?" Gendo asked. "Why do you insist that you are my son? You said it yourself, I knew his psychological profile, he was desperate, in a break down, he was most likely even delirious at times and he probably couldn't even completely separate reality from what transpired in his own mind. It's a wonder that Instrumentality did not occur under those circumstances. You want me to believe that a broken boy like that would become someone like you after so little time?"

"Well, let's start with Instrumentality itself shall we?" Shinji said as he led Gendo down a door in a large room. "Mother would probably want to hear this as well." That was when Gendo saw her, Yui was standing in the middle of the room. He realized that it was a hologram of some sort, but he didn't care, he could see her for the first time in so many years. He also saw that she seemed angry, and that anger was directed at him.

"As I was saying, a key part in my change is the Instrumentality process. It started my change, also, you should know that it didn't fail, I chose to end it." Shinji said. "Most people don't know that, it seems that you don't either. Considering my state of mind, it doesn't really make sense that I was able to end it, or that I even wanted to end it. The thing is, the whole scenario had one great flaw, one that seemed so impossible that you never even considered it possible. That flaw was Asuka."

"What does the Second Child have to do with anything?" Gendo asked, honestly surprised. In all honesty, he believed that the girl would have a negative effect on his son, that's why he agreed to allow her to live with him and Katsuragi.

"Our son, fell in love with her." Yui said. "You obviously didn't notice after all that you did. You used our son, MY CHILD, as a TOOL! The only remaining proof of the love between us and you tried to destroy him!" By now she was yelling, anger at her husband's actions taking over. "For what?! How could you do something like that to him? Is anything worth the monstrosities you committed? I sacrificed myself in Unit-01, when I realized that my fate was inevitable I allowed myself to be pulled in the Eva, I gave myself to it fully, so that when the time comes I would be able to protect my son from within."

"I never knew Yui, after you were lost, I was desperate, I didn't know what to do!" Gendo replied, seeking forgiveness from his only love. "I did it all to be with you again. I never once thought that I could live without you…"

"What about our son Gendo? The son that you abandoned! He was so broken when I touched his mind, alone and hurting, rejected by his own father! How could he believe that anyone else could love him when his own father seemed to hate him?" Yui asked. "I know a lot of what you did. I dare say that it's unforgivable! What you did to my son and many others!"

"But!"

"But nothing! What you did to get me back was not a proof of love Gendo, it was simple minded desperation and obsession, not real love. If you would have truly loved me, like I have loved you once, then you would have thought about what I wanted as well and what had to be done, not only your selfish desires." Yui continued. "It's a miracle that Shinji is as he is now. The world was almost damned for eternity because of your mistakes! Did you really believe that we would have been reunited in a paradise of some sort?! Did you believe that I would EVER forgive you for all that you did?!"

"Yui… I…"

"There is nothing left to be said… Rokobungi! Even half dead as I am now and I can still file a divorce." Yui replied, her voice set, never once wavering. "Being a husband also means being a father, which you have never been, despite the fact that you did bother to father a child. Even when he was little, I noticed that you didn't care much for Shinji, always busy with your work above all else. Now leave, I don't ever want to see you again!"

"Yui, listen to me please!" Gendo cried out.

"Shinji, get him out please, do what ever you want with him!" Yui replied, not even listening to Gendo's plea. The door opened behind Gendo, but he didn't notice, at least not until Shinji pushed him out with his AT field, then exited himself. The once proud man fell crumpled to the floor, to shocked to move, having all of his dreams and hopes shattered by this one event.

"I believe that I did warn you." Shinji said looking down on him. "I suppose you never did listen to the advice of those around you, whether they cared or not." Gendo said nothing, still laying there motionless. "What do you want now? I can arrange for you to go back on Earth, I can arrange for you to stay here. Hell, I can even get you a gun if you want to kill yourself. Though, that would really prove that you were worthless wouldn't it?"

"I guess you're happy now, aren't you!" Gendo said in a hateful whisper. "You ruined everything and took everything away from me, just like I had always feared you would."

"Blaming me won't change anything and it won't help you either." Shinji replied calmly. "I would suggest that you look over the situation in a different perspective. Why don't you try to make amends? Try and change for God's sakes. Even I learned to change. Sure, it took the end of the world, the help of three very powerful entities and an attack from SEELE after said end of the world to get me there, but I did start to change!"

"What's the point in changing? I did my best and I failed…" Gendo replied silently, as for Shinji, he was getting annoyed, especially since he was starting to understand how people felt around him when he was being like this sometimes.

"So, you're just going to do what I used to do? Run away with your tail between your legs? You may have lost mother, but I'm sure that you can still do something with your life. Let's move, maybe if I show you around, I can get some perspective in that single minded head of yours!" Shinji replied while pulling his father up by his right hand. That man had was willing to damn the whole world for the sake of reuniting with the woman he believed he loved and after all that he was going to let himself die like that? Shinji had no intention of allowing it to happen, Gendo had abandoned him, but he wouldn't return the favor, he would be better man in this and do the right thing.

--

Meanwhile, as the events regarding Shinji's father were underway, Asuka decided to wander around town until it was over, especially since she knew that it would probably take some time to get things over with. There were 6 towns in Sanctuary's central sphere, it was a truly amazing accomplishment. The German girl wanted to see as much of it as it was possible as the internal autumn progressed and slowly gave way to winter. The internal weather control crated realistic weather effects, the size of the sphere allowing such a strange event to take place.

To Asuka and all the children born after or not long before Second Impact, the seasons were something wondrous, one of those things which they never had the chance to live through. So she enjoyed it while she could while also exploring the town. Unlike any of the towns she had been through, this town didn't have any cars. At first she wondered why, but that was soon answered when she saw people flying one day by using their powers. There was still a question about how they were able to take care of large amounts of goods that needed to be moved. Again, the AT field provided a solution to that as well. Apparently, there were special containers that were made out of a special metal that made them easy to lift with an AT field. All you had to do was load them, get on top and take of with as many as your powers could take, which with that specially developed alloy was quite a lot for even average people.

Another odd thing around here was the communications affair, instead of phones, you had these small crystals that you could carry around anywhere. Those crystals could act as data storage devices while also being able to connect to one another over seemingly infinite distances allowing instant telepathic communication. The problem was that you had to have at least some knowledge about AT fields and be able to use them at the most basic levels to use them. This made life for the refugees slightly more difficult, but there were benefits, since they weren't forced to work until they adapted to the new conditions and they received a lot of support from the community.

As Asuka made her way around town she received nods and smiles from passing citizens who had heard who she was and what she was doing. Some of them were even people rescued from Tokyo-3 or the Alaskan base. It was surprising that a place like this could even exist, but it didn't matter, some mysteries were better left unsolved, Sanctuary was one of them. As she walks around, she decides to stop at a café down the road and simply sit down and relax while having a warm cup of coffee. The only reason for which she drank coffee these days was the fact that she was used to it, because it had no effect on her body due to her powers.

"Asuka, what are you doing around here?" Hikari's voice came from down the street just as Asuka was taking her first sip from the cup. "How come Shinji's not with you?" Hikari was accompanied by Toji, who had a look that seemed to say that he'd rather die than stand around Asuka. Sure, they were getting along far better now, but he still wanted to avoid the red headed menace if he could.

"Hikari, hi. I was just wandering around town. As for Shinji, he has to deal with his father today." Asuka replied then took another sip from the cup. "I have no idea exactly how long it will take, but I can safely bet that it will be a while until they're done. So, I'm just wandering around."

Meanwhile Hikari and Toji seated themselves at Asuka's table and ordered something to drink as well. Since the weather was cold, it was a good time for a warm drink of any kind. "I take it that he wanted to this by himself, right?" Toji asked, concerned for his previously rather fragile friend.

"Yes, and it makes sense that he wants things to be this way, we're talking about his father after all." Asuka added. "I'm not worried about Shinji though, he can handle it. It's Gendo someone should be worried about, certainly not me." Asuka chuckled evilly at the though of what Shinji was capable of.

"He wouldn't kill Gendo… would he?" Hikari asked, for her killing anyone, even a man like Gendo Ikari was bad, it was just the way she was raised. "I mean, wouldn't it be too much?"

"I would." Toji replied. "It's his fault that my sister had to go through all of that pain and because of him I was missing an arm and a leg before Third Impact." Toji was not the kind of person who would forgive someone like the former Commander of NERV easily.

"Toji!" Hikari gasped, shocked by Toji's reply.

"Well, for once I agree with you." Asuka said. "I would kill him as well. Because of him, I had to go through the 15ths attack, and that pushed me over the edge. I almost died because of his stupid desire to protect Unit-01. It was his fault as well that Shinji was as screwed up as he was."

"I can't believe you two!" Hikari said. "You're talking about killing another human being! It's a sin!"

"I don't know if Gendo Ikari qualifies as human anymore Hikari. He was almost responsible for the genocide, if that words covers the death of all humanity. Plus, even Shinji considered killing him, and that says a lot." Asuka replied.

"You don't know how horrible that man was Hikari, so you can't really understand why so many people want to kill him." Toji added. "I doubt he has a single friend in the world."

"I guess…" Hikari said, unconvinced by their arguments against the man. Though, she really had no idea how severe were Gendo Ikari's crimes against humanity. For her innocent mind, it was impossible to comprehend the horrible things committed by that man, all for the sake of a desperate dream.

--

Meanwhile, Shinji was quick to make arrangements that would allow his father to remain in Sanctuary, though he would be guarded at all times, even if he was no threat to the natives, there were still the refugees to take into account. After that, Shinji decided to go with Gendo to the only person that might not out right kill him in all of Sanctuary, but still knew the evil man. Thus, Shinji lead his father through the town to Kozo Fuyutsuki's house, the former professor lived in a small house at the edge of town where he could enjoy the peace and quiet after a rather difficult life.

He was happy these days, he didn't have to worry about secrets and other stuff like that, all he had to worry about was getting bored. Even that seemed unlikely since Sanctuary had it's own cultural life to explore, so there was a lot of new music and lots of unheard books to go through. Plus, the whole thing was fascinating, he wanted to eventually explore the entire main sphere and the remaining eight spheres. Especially since in each sphere there was a slightly different climate and in general a different type of ecosystem was being simulated.

Kozo rarely received visits, no one really knew the former Vice-Commander, so obviously not many wanted to see him. That didn't bother him at all though, also, if he really wanted to spend time somewhere he was always able to go and pay a visit to John's villa where the two children and Misato and Kaji were living. He had to admit that Shinji inherited his mother's talent for cooking. Taking all this into account, he was surprised to hear a knock on the door, signaling that someone came for a visit. Even so, he went and opened the door, he wasn't surprised when he saw Shinji, but he was shocked when he saw Gendo, especially since the man looked as if he wanted to die. Well, the answer to that was rather obvious, the meeting with Yui must have gone rather badly.

"Sorry to intrude professor, but, I think I need a your help with a problem." Shinji said as the door was opened.

"Nonsense Shinji, you know you're always welcome, not to mention that I think I know what your problem is." Fuyutsuki sighed and allowed the two to enter his house, he led them to the living room and went to prepare some tea for his guests. When he returned he noticed that despite his downcast face, Gendo was still quietly observing his surroundings.

"So, I take it that you saw Yui today Gendo, and your expression is answer enough for me to know how that went." Fuyutsuki said, trying to get the younger man's attention, but he didn't reply. "I have to say that I'm not surprised, I always did know that something like this would happen."

That got Gendo's attention, who raised his head and glared at his former teacher. "What do you mean you were expecting something like this? Why didn't you warn me?"

"How? If I didn't support you, you would have had me killed. Plus, even if there was a way to make it even partly believable, would that have stopped you? Somehow I doubt it." The former professor replied. "Now, you did what you wanted without thinking of the consequences and look where it got you. There's no going back now Gendo, all you can do is move forward and do something with whatever's left of your life."

"She hates me Kozo, after all I did, she hates me, what's worse is that I'm beginning to understand WHY she hates me." Gendo replied with a downcast voice. "She's right about everything I've done, and Shinji's right too. Her rejection doesn't hurts as much as the fact that I'm beginning to realize that I really do deserve it…"

"That's good, if you realize that you were wrong, you can start moving ahead and start making things right." Fuyutsuki replied. "The truth is Gendo that, you only believed that you loved Yui, but that wasn't true love, it was like what you had for Rei. You believed that you cared for Rei and sometimes it even seemed like it to others as well, but your willingness to use her like that showed the truth. You have to move ahead Gendo, and forget Yui."

"I should have listened to you more when I could still prevent some of this madness, professor." Gendo replied, he then noticed that on the table were two cups of tea and a tea pot, that and Shinji was nowhere to be seen. "That's odd, where did Shinji go?"

"So you're finally calling him Shinji eh? It's a good place to start." Kozo said as he took a sip from the warm tea. "You should drink some as well, it will help with your nerves."

Gendo raises his cup and takes a sip from the tea, he notices immediately that he can't recognize the brand and that it's better than any tea he had before. "I don't recognize this tea, and you still didn't tell me what happened with Shinji."

"Shinji's probably outside, practicing his swordsmanship, he's a surprisingly talented fighter, I suppose that's something he got from you. Did you know that when Unit-01 went berserk, it was acting on Shinji's rage and commands? Yui only forced it to go berserk, everything else was all from Shinji's pent up anger." Fuyutsuki replied. "If you hadn't abandoned him and raised him yourself, he would have become an excellent fighter in the Eva, far better than Asuka."

"I can imagine." Gendo said, thinking about all the mistakes he did in the past. "I was really foolish in my actions, I acted only on impulse and I didn't think everything as much as I should have."

"At least you're still alive. If Asuka went after you, you'd be dead right now." Kozo replied. "She still hates you for what happened with the 15th and with her powers, she could have returned the favor. She has Lilith's powers, while your son has Adam's powers."

"I see, so that's why SEELE's after them." Gendo said. "They want to use them to restart Third Impact… Still, SEELE's new display of power is incredible, how did they manage to build 7 more Evas?"

"Well, John believes that there are far more than 7 out there. The ones that resemble the MP Evas could very well be in the hundreds if not thousands, not to mention that they've managed to create an army of cloned soldiers that are capable of using AT fields." Kozo said. "So it won't be easy at all to handle this."

"Speaking of that man John, there's something off about him, like he's planning something…" Gendo said, being the schemer that he was, he was able to see that John seemed to have a hidden agenda of some sort. "Whatever it is, it doesn't sound to good from my point of view. I don't like it."

"So you've noticed too eh?" Fuyutsuki replied. "I don't know what he's planning, but I wouldn't be too worried about it, he's not as strong as some might think. Shinji and Asuka together can beat him in a fight quite easily, they already did a few times in live training exercises. So we don't need to worry."

"I hope you're right old friend, I hope you're right." Gendo said, then took a look at a watch that was on the wall. "It's getting late, I think I've wasted enough of your time. I'm pretty tired as it is after all that happened, I should go the my new residence and get some sleep."

"Any time Ikari." Kozo replied but Gendo cut him off.

"Rokobungi."

"Pardon?"

"It's Rokobungi now, Yui wants a divorce and there's no point in dragging things. If I'm to move forward, I have to start somewhere." Gendo replied.

"Very well, I hope to see you again soon." Fuyutsuki said as he lead Gendo to the front door.

As he went out, Gendo saw Shinji leaning on a street light right in front of the house. The boy had his eyes closed and seemed oblivious to Gendo's presence. The older man made his way to the relaxed boy, but said boy spoke before he got too close.

"So, was it worth the effort to bring you here?" Shinji asked, still keeping his eyes closed.

"Yes, it was. How did you know it was me?" Gendo asked.

"I can sense AT fields, and I can tell the difference between one AT field and another since each and every one is unique." Shinji replied. "I guess you want to return to your new home, right?"

"Indeed. Shinji… I… I want to thank you… for helping me… I caused you so much pain that I wouldn't have been surprised if you killed me yourself, yet you went out of your way to get me on my feet again. I hope one day that I'll be able to make it up to you." Gendo said as they made their way through the streets to Gendo's new house. "I'm sorry for all the pain that I caused you son."

Shinji smiled, but for the moment he chose to say nothing. Eventually they reached the house and Gendo went in, but before he could close the door, Shinji replied. "You made your mistakes, but I wasn't perfect either. You deserve a second chance just like the rest of us father. I did only what I thought was right."

"Thank you son, I won't disappoint you." Gendo said then closed the door.

"I hope for your sake that you don't…" Shinji said silently as he made his way back home.

--

Shinji didn't waste much time getting back home, this had taken enough of his time, but maybe it would be worth it. It was the perfect way to prove that he was nothing like his father used to be, because now, his father was only a shadow of his former self. The fake sun had disappeared some time ago and Shinji was contemplating the idea of sleep for the moment, his body might not need to rest, but his mind demanded rest from time to time, especially after such a demanding day like this one.

His senses told him that Asuka was still up, John wasn't home and Misato and Kaji were in their bedroom. Shinji derailed that train of thought before it went somewhere… inappropriate. Despite what some people might think, Shinji was many things, but not stupid, not to mention that it didn't take a genius to figure out what those two favorite pass time was. So he simply shut of his "AT sense" for the time being, because it was sensitive enough to detect movement on a very precise scale when in such small distances. Asuka's was even finer than this, if she focused, she could detect someone lightly shivering from a distance of 3 miles. Though, if what John said was true, with all of Adam's or Lilith's powers, they would both eventually be able to feel each and every person on the surface of the Earth.

As Shinji opened the door, he found Asuka waiting right in his path, though the way she was dressed caused his jaw to fall open. Asuka was dressed in a red evening dress which really accentuated all of her developing curves, it was one of those dresses that have an instant effect on all men, especially if worn by someone like Asuka. She had he wings out, creating an image that left Shinji speechless, she was the very definition of an angel in the young man's mind. He was literally routed to the spot when she approached him and laid her hands on his shoulders.

"So how do I look?" She asked with a suggestive tone.

"I… uh… I really can't think of any words that would do you justice…" Shinji replies, stammering a bit. "I… take it that… you went shopping… right?"

"Yea, I didn't really have much to do around here while you were out, so I wandered around town for a bit. I ran across this dress and I had to have it. I was just checking it out with my wings out to see how it feels when you came in." Asuka replies, closing even more on Shinji, who's having a hard time in forming coherent thoughts right now. "I thought it would come in handy if we had any kind of formal outing, if you know what I mean. Especially since all of my old clothes were destroyed in Third Impact."

Meanwhile Shinji manages to regain his composure, after all, he had seen Asuka in less clothes. "I'll have to get something as well one of these days. Though, I've never been to any social events in my life."

"I know." Asuka says pointing a finger at her forehead. "I think we should both go shopping tomorrow and get some more clothes. After all, one dress isn't enough and you need more than just formal wear."

"Sounds good to me, It's not like I have anything to worry about." Shinji replied. "Plus, it'll be a chance to try something new, right?"

"That's the spirit!" Asuka says cheerfully. "I'm surprised, most boys are terrified of going shopping with their girlfriends."

"Well, most boys don't have an AT field which they can use to carry stuff on." Shinji replied. "Not to mention superhuman strength and virtually unlimited energy. Also, most boys are nowhere near as serious as I am." With that said, he pulls Asuka in an embrace and kisses her. "I'm very serious about this…"

Asuka is left speechless after what Shinji said, she couldn't believe that boy. Once again she can't help but think about how lucky she must be for meeting someone like him. In reply she kisses him back but says nothing, content to simply stay in his arms where she feels safe and loved. After a while though, she breaks the embrace and heads for her room to change out of her dress. At first she wanted to ask Shinji about how it went with his father, but she decided that it would only sour the mood and Shinji probably wanted to get his mind of the subject at least for a while.

Twenty minutes later, both teens retired to sleep, since for Shinji at least, it had been a long day.

--

The following day, four of the house's residents gathered for breakfast as always, the fifth member that was usually present was missing today. Even so, things proceeded as usual, up until Misato decided to inquire more about what happened in her charges lives. No matter what happened or how mature they proved to be, she would always think about those two as her children.

"So, Shinji, I heard that you took care of that business regarding your father yesterday." Misato said, Shinji was just chewing a piece of toast, and he didn't seem to acknowledge her statement. "How did it go?"

Shinji finishes chewing, then waits a bit to form the ideas in his mind. "It went well I suppose. Mom destroyed him and she wants a divorce after all that happened. He was in a way almost dead after he heard all that she had to say to him. Before that though, I scared him to the max with my sword play, not to mention that I gave him a rather interesting hair cut. Not much to say really."

"Serves the bastard right after everything he's done to all of us." Misato replied. "What happened to him?"

"Well, he'll be living here in Sanctuary after all this, he's under guard, not that he could do much around here." Shinji said. "He's trying to pull his life back together and move on after mom. I gave him another chance to redeem himself."

"What?" Misato asked, shocked to hear that Gendo would receive a full pardon from the very person who was mostly screwed by his behavior. "You're going to forgive him?"

"Yes, he's only human after all and I'm not sure what I would have done in his position." Shinji replied. "I won't lower myself at his level by acting like he would have in the same position. I honestly believe that most people deserve a second chance. If someone like Adam managed to get his act together and take some redeeming actions at the end, then so can my father."

"It's your choice I guess, even though I can't guarantee that I won't punch him in the gut if I run into him on the street." Misato said. "I'm not such a good person as you are Shinji. He still has to pay in my opinion and so, it's going to be along time before I ever get along with the man."

"That's your opinion." Shinji replied simply then returned to his food, until he received a signal of the telepathic kind, John wanted to make contact. Both he and Asuka were capable of protecting their own minds from mental intrusion, so, to contact them, you couldn't simply call to them if you wanted to talk privately, you had to ask for permission so to speak. If they had that level of protection during the angel wars, then the 15th angel's attack would have been pointless. Shinji opened a part of his protection to John allowing the man to communicate with him, Asuka joined them in an instant.

'Yes John?'

'Shinji, Asuka, after you finish breakfast, I want you two to join me in my office. We have plans to discuss, we're going to have another operation soon.' John said in the tone he always used when he was serious. It was easily recognizable since it held a bit of force when normally he was relaxed and slightly humorous. Apparently he could use it in mental conversations as well, that was because their thoughts were now emulating sounds. John was skilled enough to communicate like that without words, but Shinji and Asuka were still learning the tricks involving telepathy. 'I'll have to warn you right now that this one will be more dangerous than anything we've tried before, so if you want to stand aside, you can do it right now without even hearing about it.'

'John, if I know you, you're blowing things out of proportion again.' Asuka added to the conversation. She had sensed that Shinji was being contacted and joined in, knowing that John probably wanted to talk to the both of them. She was able to recognize individual mind patterns at will and John's was pretty familiar. 'We'll both be there in a bit.'

'I have to agree with Asuka on this one.' Shinji replied. 'So yea, we'll be there soon.'

'You can't blame me for being worried though. Oh, this mission won't involve the avatars, but you should let Misato and Kaji know about it since we'll be gone for a while.'

'Roger.' Shinji said and then he felt the connection fade, he turned his attention to Misato. "Well, it seems that we have more work to do."

"What do you mean?" Kaji asked in Misato's place.

"He means that we're going on another mission soon enough." Asuka said. "We're letting you guys know so easily because we're going to be away for some time. How long, John didn't say, most likely he doesn't know himself."

Misato sighed, she wanted to tell them to refuse, or something like that, but she knew that they were right, someone had to go with John. As powerful as the man seemed at times, she knew that he had his limits, a rather live training exercise after the mission proved that point quite well…

--

-Flashback-

After they talked and rested after the mission in Alaska, the kids went back to their usual program, which included quite a bit of training in some days. Today, Shinji was supposed to have a heavy sparing match with John, solo. Both would be using real weapons and were even allowed to take the chance and cause real blows to their opponent, non-fatal blows of course, but non-fatal could mean quite some nasty wounds in both cases. Shinji could literally receive any sort of blow, including outright decapitation without dying, as long as his heart/core was left intact. Anyone could come and watch if they knew about the match of course.

Misato, Kaji, Asuka, Sarah and several members of Sanctuary's personnel were there, some were there to ensure that nothing went wrong. Asuka herself was there to ensure that nothing went wrong, while cheering for Shinji. The match took place in a specially designed training area inside the military base, friendly matches between different soldiers were rather common as they helped you to develop your powers and skill in far better ways than simple training, plus, it was the only real way to test someone's skill without actually going into combat.

The two of them were already out there, waiting for the signal to begin and doing their own versions of final preparations. Shinji was twirling his sword in his hands at a very slow speed, which was actually harder than high speed maneuvers while John seems to be meditating with his twin blades in his hands. John was relaxed, you could say that he had a serene expression on his face, on the other hand Shinji seemed a bit nervous about all of this, but you could also see the determination in his eyes.

The signal was a red light blinking three times from the ceiling, as soon as it winked out, both of them lunged at the other. Shinji jumped high while John ran straight forward. As Shinji landed, he made a vertical cleaving motion with his large sword, placing all of his strength in the blow, forcing John to parry by using both of his blades. They stood in the weapon lock for about ten seconds before jumping back and charging forward once more.

At the last moment, John dodged to Shinji's right and released his blade tentacles while slicing with his right sword. Shinji managed to block the sword with his own and also block three of the right tentacles with his AT field, but the one which was lowest slipped through and severed his leg of at knee level. Shinji staggered because of the pain and screamed, but it wasn't over, as John had sprinted forward and then turned, releasing a twin blasts of raw energy right into Shinji's back , throwing the boy for a distance of five meters.

Shinji was getting back on his left foot just as John began to charge forward. They could yield at any time, but it was rather obvious that Shinji had no intention to yield right now. Seeing that he had no real means of dodging like that, Shinji released a 4 meters tall cross flare, forcing John to jump back. John noticed that Shinji's eyes were still glowing with a bright blue flame too late, because pain exploded from his left shoulder. He looked at the shoulder and was shocked to see that there was a sort of bone spike coming out of it from behind. On the other side of the shoulder, the rest of Shinji's right leg could be seen, the calve, the ankle and the foot, the spike was being extended from where the knee was normally attached.

John was so shocked by the seemingly impossible maneuver that didn't see Shinji move until he had his sword at his neck. Incredibly, John lost in a one on one fight with Shinji. It seemed impossible, but it happened right there before their eyes. No one could understand how that happened, especially since Shinji's move was brilliant, far better than anything anyone ever expected from the boy who seemed so opposed to violence.

-End Flashback-

--

Misato had later learned from Sarah how that happened and what Shinji did. Sarah, as a trained medic knew far more about what a body can do than John, also, seeing that Adam's powers were orientated towards the body, even more so in Shinji than in Adam, she had studied the matter and helped Shinji understand his ability at a different level. Apparently Shinji could control the evolution of his body outside his avatar, meaning that he could literally experiment with biological improvements of different kinds. Sarah secretly helped him in this task with her knowledge concerning the human body, and other organisms. Being pretty old compared to normal humans herself, she was able to retain a lot of information on the subject.

Thus, she helped Shinji develop a series of regional S2 engines in his body, all of different sizes, but with a pretty obvious role. Those S2 organs were placed inside of his palms, his forearms, a couple more were about three centimeters above each elbow, one on each thigh and one on each calve, plus another one inside his brain case right between the two halves of the brain. With, these, you could cut the respective body parts of, but Shinji would still be able to use them and even change them in the middle of a fight. So in the middle of his fight with John, Shinji called his leg back and extended a bone spike from it, aiming it right at John, distracting him. Another bonus of this knowledge was the fact that Shinji could suppress his own nerves, thus stopping any pain from reaching his brain if he needed to avoid it. Also, he could change his body during a fight then completely reverse the change afterwards according to the situation.

"Well, I can't say anything about this, you're as ready as you could be and seeing that you were able to defeat John in a fight, I think he needs the help." Misato said with a sigh. "Just come back safe you two."

"Don't worry Misato, we know what we're doing." Asuka replied in Shinji's place as he simply nodded…

To be continued…

Ok, the thing is that I have this debate whether or not to post more than one story at once. The poll on my profile and some other feedback on evamade tends to say that I should and the majority of all the little feedback says that as long as i finish all of them it's ok. With barely seven votes on the poll, you can imagine that I'm hardly reassured, that's why I'm turning to the readers of the story. I'm going to wait one week for feedback from you guys, be it in reviews, PM's, emails or anything else you might consider.

After that, if the idea is a go, then I'll have a three week poll to decide which one of the dominant ideas in my had at the moment gets screen time alongside Continuum. Of course I'll accept any kind of feed back regarding the matter not just voting in the poll.

If everything goes well, after those three weeks, I'll start posting chapters, though the updates will probably be a bit more irregular than with Continuum seeing as this will be a secondary story.

Also, if you need clarification in this or that regarding this story (or any others to come for that matter) just ask through the usual channels, because I know that my writing style still needs work and it can cause some confusion.

As for flamers, you can try, but my chaotic nature will make me absorb them and just make me stronger and probably more stubborn too.


	7. Chapter 7

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 7: Mission in Berlin

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

Shinji and Asuka were both in John's office soon after breakfast. Asuka seemed relaxed, but inwardly she was slightly worried, Shinji's face on the other hand was set in silent determination, he imposed calm on himself. He wasn't going to let himself worry before the mission even started or before they even knew what it was. After all, it wasn't like it was any more dangerous than the things he did during the angel wars. Back then, he didn't even have the powers he had now, ad with them, he didn't have the option to cut his own pain down by silencing the nerves through his will.

Though not a soldier, Sarah had taught him more about his powers than John could have. John knew how to fight and how to use certain abilities in battle, but he didn't have an understanding of Shinji's rather unique abilities. Sarah on the other hand knew quite a bit about influencing the body, since she was trained to do it as a medic. She was used to commanding cells to regenerate damaged tissue on other people or even herself. It was a matter of feeding the cells with energy and converting that energy to matter depending on the cellular needs. Shinji was able to do that subconsciously apparently, fact which meant that he could not only regenerate, but also order his cells to change into other forms and then form other forms of tissue. Sarah had explained that cells sustained by an AT field could create any kind of tissue, including biological energy weapons. Seeing as he had unlimited energy at his disposal, his only limit being the fact that he could harness only so much in a certain time, Shinji could literally be a sort of walking biological weapons factory.

Those thoughts were washed out of his head as soon as John finished shifting through the few folders that were on his desk and placed them in a drawer. He raised his head and looked at the two silent teens before him, he sighed inwardly knowing that now they were anything but children and things would get even uglier soon enough.

"Well, I guess we should get started here. We'll be going on a mission on Earth, our objective being to rescue a few people and then obliterate one of SEELE's main Evangelion production facilities. Asuka, you'll be familiar with the area, since we're going to Berlin. That's where SEELE's main NERV base is, that's where they take care of most of their researches and where they most likely developed those beasts we keep running into." John said and then took a short pause looking for any reactions from the teens. Asuka seemed a little bit more tense while Shinji seemed to be curious. "Anyway, the fact is that the NERV base you knew is only the cover for a much larger complex developed by SEELE in secret. That thing is comparable with the old NERV base you guys knew, only that it's even larger than that and it's probably heavily guarded. It's too cramped for Eva sized battles, so I suspect that they're guarding it with those clone troopers of theirs. No matter what the situation is, it's unlikely that we'll be able to bring in the Avatars, not without drawing a lot of attention on us and also doing quite some damage to Berlin."

"So we'll just have to get in and fight our way the old fashioned way?" Asuka asked.

"Eventually yes. Before that though, we'll have to rescue a few people as I said, people that SEELE has been using for quite some time. They are researchers that unwillingly helped SEELE develop these things. They live more or less in the city, but they're being monitored by SEELE agents as far as I can tell. We'll have to contact them and make arrangements to move them back to Sanctuary, out of SEELE's reach. This will probably take some time." John said, again waiting to see how they would react.

"I take it that we'll be on our own during this mission, right?" Shinji asked.

"Yes and no." John replied. "We'll have to handle the first part of the mission by ourselves, then we'll have to get to the hidden complex. After we enter it, we'll be able to open an entrance to the Dirac sea and bring in some mech divisions to help us clean the place out. After that's been taken care of, we wipe the place clean with some really big bombs or Asuka's powers if she'll feel up to it and ensure that those bases won't be used by anyone for quite a few years."

"So, basically this is a sort of seek and destroy mission." Asuka stated. "How long do you think we're going to be out there?"

"I'd say in the best case scenario, at least a week." John replied. "So you guys better pack up a few things to go. We'll be staying in Berlin in a house I arranged to be bought. We'll have forged papers and new identities there, so that we look like citizens. It was pretty easy for my agents to handle the job seeing as they have a rather significant psychic boost. SEELE has to rely on normal human agents, unlike us. They can't really use those clones in the open, and since they're soulless, they aren't as good as real people."

"Well, it doesn't sound to hard…" Asuka said.

"The first part isn't too hard, but the second part will be dangerous. Those clones can use AT fields, so they'll put up a fight. Not to mention that their strength is in numbers, and we'll deal with a lot of them." John said, then sighed. "There's one more thing that might change your mind though. The clones we'll have to kill are made from Kaworu Nagisa's DNA, as a consequence, they look just like him."

Shinji paled at that bit of information, Asuka at first gained a sadistic smile, the idea of killing that guy over and over again was quite appealing, especially since these were just soulless dolls. Still, that expression lasted only about a second, she noticed Shinji's reaction and she immediately became concerned. She took a hold of his left hand, seeing as he was sitting to her right. Shinji closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath, after that he calmed himself.

"They're not Kaworu and I think he'd feel insulted by their existence, so, I'm still coming. I think it's going to be a good thing to dispose of those… things." Shinji replied, he was a bit silent, but determined as ever showing that he had indeed matured a lot since the Angel wars ended.

"Very well, then the two of you should go pack up some things and get ready to leave. We're leaving tomorrow morning, at that time, it will be evening in Berlin." John replied and got up from his desk, heading for the door. The pair also got out of their chairs and left the room, both of them wondering about how everything would turn out.

--

The two former pilots returned home, both pondering the current situation. Shinji didn't like the situation at all, it seemed that no matter how low SEELE went, they managed to find a way to go even lower than that. The idea of fighting clones made in the image of the one person that was his friend at the end of the Angel wars wasn't a pleasant one. Still, he wasn't going to be tricked by that, he was going to show those SEELE people that he wasn't going to be their tool and that he wasn't as easy to manipulate as before.

Asuka wasn't really happy of going back to Berlin, she would have been happy if she wouldn't have had to return there ever again. There were too many bad memories there, memories of her mother's apparent suicide, of her abandonment by her father, of the long and lonely days spent training and learning, never once being appreciated for who she was, never being loved. That place meant nothing to her, if she would have been allowed to do it, she would have blown it up to pieces with her power. If Lilith was able to kill every human on Earth, then blowing one little town in a fit of anger wouldn't have been too much.

As soon as they got home, they were greeted by Misato, the reasons why were pretty obvious to both of them. No matter how powerful they could become, she would always be worried about their safety. Also, she had no idea what they were supposed to do in this mission or where they were going, so she was obviously going to nag them about it. Shinji and Asuka exchanged a knowing look, shook their heads and went in passing on other side of the purple headed woman without saying any words. Still Misato wasn't going to give up this easily.

"You two wait right there, I want to know what's going on around here." She stated in a neutral tone, not because she wasn't annoyed by their attempt to ignore her, but because she didn't want to risk setting Asuka of. No matter how much progress the girl made in regards to her temper, she was still rather volatile. Shinji sighed, deciding that no matter how much they wanted to avoid it, she would have to know some of the details. Even though she would be even more worried about them after hearing these things.

"We're going to Berlin Misato, that's where one of SEELE's main research bases is hidden, we're going to take care of it, with some help obviously." Shinji said calmly, then remained silent, waiting for the older woman to asses his statement.

"Well, that makes sense." Misato said. "The German branch of NERV was our lead research base in regards to Eva technology and weaponry. If they built another base there, they could justify the expenses surrounding it with the help of the NERV base. A rather good trick…"

"I suppose, but that's besides the point, it has to be destroyed and the people being forced to work for them have to be rescued." Shinji replied pondering Misato's reaction. "It will take a while to contact some people around there and attempt to rescue those scientists."

"Yea, I figured as much." Misato said. "You guys will be there at least a week, if not more. Earning the trust of those people won't be easy if SEELE is as bad as they've proved themselves to be. Who knows what they're doing to keep those people working in that lab. They won't trust you guys so easily and even when they will, it will be a little difficult to get them out of there. Speaking of scientists, I just heard that you guys found Ritsuko in that facility where Gendo was working on his plans. Why didn't you guys tell me earlier and what happened to her?"

"Ah, well, we kinda forgot about her…" Asuka said. "I mean, with all that happened after we came out of the base, it slipped out of our minds, if you get the idea." Asuka spread her wings out of her back to punctuate the statement. "Last I heard, she was transferred in the sixth sphere… they have psych ward there."

"What? Why?!" Misato asked, shocked that her friend from college needed that kind of help. Things may have gotten colder between the two of them with all that happened, but she still had hope that she could patch things up with the faux blond.

"She had a nervous breakdown about three hours after she was brought in." Shinji replied. "John said that she was apparently unstable, everything she saw surrounding Sanctuary, things that literally break the laws of physics and so on made her mind loose what control she had left. Apparently, all that happened because of my father to her, plus something that happened during Third Impact or right before it really screwed up her mind. Apparently it's surprising that she lasted this long without going completely insane because of the mental stress."

Misato took a deep breath then sighed. She was surprised, especially since Ritsuko seemed to be in control most of her life. Still, what happened in room full of Rei clones had taught her that her old friend could snap and loose control if enough pressure was applied. "Will she ever recover?"

"Well, that's what they're hopping, but nothing is certain." Asuka said. "Not to mention that I felt a great deal of disarray in her head. I have no idea what's going on in there, but I didn't probe in an active way and I'm not on expert in understanding how the mind works despite my powers. All I can say for sure is that she was screwed up badly, worse than what I ever felt around Shinji or any of us."

"I guess I shouldn't be this surprised…" Misato said. "She did have a lot of problems and despite what it looked like, she was more distant to those around her just as much as you guys were if not more. Having all those secrets and lacking any kind of support didn't help at all, at least that's what I think."

"She's nuts, that's all there is to it." Asuka replied. "I always thought she was nuts, that plan she had during the 12th should have been proof enough that she was not normal."

"What plan?" Shinji asked, he never did learn about what happened while he was trapped in Leliel.

"Ah, well, she wanted to drop almost 1000 N2 mines in it, theoretically it would have destroyed the angel, but at the same time, it would have killed you. Before the operation could commence, you went berserk and ripped the angel to pieces from the inside." Asuka replied. Shinji's eyes widened a bit then he shook his head. He had no idea things were that bad. He was starting to recover his memories from during the berserker incidents, but they weren't crystal clear yet and they couldn't explain what happened outside or while he was completely unconscious.

"I remember going berserk, but I had no idea I was so close to loosing it all." Shinji said. "You're right, that is nuts…"

"Ok, enough of that… Ritsuko has here flaws, but so do we all, it's not fair of us to judge her." Misato replied. "We all made a lot of mistakes during those times, regarding the war and one another. Things have changed and I'm sure that she will change too when she recovers. She deserves a second chance."

"I never said she didn't." Shinji said. "I said she WAS nuts, I don't know how she WILL be when she recovers. Personally I don't care as long as she doesn't try to cause any troubles."

"I don't care, she can do what ever she wants, but if she causes troubles, she'll see just what I'm capable of. During the war all she cared about were the Evas. If she would have been a little more supportive and if she would have given us a little more information, I wouldn't have had that breakdown and I wouldn't have tried to kill myself!" Asuka replied, she was pretty loud, but she was trying to keep it in check. That time was hard for her and you could say that she was pushed over the edge. She had heard what Akagi said before the 15th raped her mind, she 

practically pushed her to attempt to fight it like that and refuse to retreat, thinking that her job was on the line like that. At that time, she didn't have anything else besides Eva…

Shinji placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, Asuka closed her eyes and took a deep breath, those memories were always painful, it would be years before she would be able to think about those things without loosing her temper or getting on the verge of tears.

"I think we should get going and start packing." Shinji said pulling her away. "We're leaving tomorrow and we might need to get some stuff besides what we already have." Asuka nodded and they both left leaving Misato alone with her thoughts.

--

Later that day the two teens were both walking in a park around Sanctuary, even if the weather was cold, it was still nice to be out. No to mention that when you're able to generate even a weak AT field, a little cold is the least of your worries. Packing everything they needed didn't take nearly as long as they thought they would, being able to move objects around with your thoughts helped in that matter. So, they decided to go out for a bit, Shinji was the one to suggest it feeling that there was a too big risk to get in another tense situation with Misato because of the mission.

As they walked and enjoyed each others company and admired the view that was still new to them, they noticed another boy beginning to wave at them. Shinji had no idea who he was but Asuka soon recognized him as Kenji, the pilot of one of those Evangelions they encountered in the Alaskan base. They stopped and he ran to them, greeting them as he reached the pair.

"Hey, Shinji and Asuka right?" He asked after gasping a bit.

"Yea, that's us. Who might you be?" Shinji asked, curios as to who the boy was, Asuka had told him about Kenji, but as he never saw him, it was impossible for Shinji to recognize him.

"Oh, yea, you wouldn't know me… I'm Kenji, Kenji Sadamoto." Kenji said with a short bow.

"Right, you're the pilot of the second Eva." Shinji replied thoughtfully. "Nice to meet you, funny running into you here."

"Well, the thing is that I'm a little lost, I didn't really get the chance to get used to the place and when I started wandering around like I used to back home, I realized I had no idea where I was, not to mention that I have terrible problems with my orientation." Kenji said smiling sheepishly at the two. "When I saw you guys, I thought that maybe I could get some directions or something."

"Ah, well, there's a simple solution to that." Asuka said. "Why didn't you use one of the maps?"

As people were brought from Earth into Sanctuary along the years, John saw it fit to install digital maps all over each city. The reason for that was that it allowed the refugees to have an easier time orientating themselves and eventually getting used to the city they were sent to live in. Still, you had to know that they were digital for them to be of any use to them if you were the kind of person that had problems finding the direction of the North pole with a compass like Kenji was.

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked utterly clueless.

Asuka muttered something under her breath that sounded like idiot and a few other words, possibly the same thing only in different languages. Shinji just rolled his eyes at her reaction, no matter how she behaved towards him, she would always tend to have at least a little bit of a superior attitude with other people, it didn't matter if they really were inferior or a potential threat.

"The maps are digital." Shinji explained. "If you touch them, they show you where you are and the small keyboard usually situated on the right side is used to type in locations. Once you enter a location, it shows you how to get there from you position."

"It's so simple a brain dead monkey could use it." Asuka added while Kenji wisely chose to ignore her comment. As much as he wanted to say something back to her, knowing what she was capable of from witnessing what she did in that base, he knew that it was potentially suicidal.

"Thanks anyway, I think I'll be able to find my way now." Kenji replied.

"Well, glad we could help." Shinji asked. "Getting used to this place takes a while even when you have a lot of help around you like I did, it must be a lot harder for you though."

"You have no idea." Kenji said. "Despite everything, I'm happy with how things turned out. I had no idea I was being used as a simple pawn and I got to learn the truth about my mother. Though…" Kenji's eyes turned to the ground before sighing and continuing. "She didn't want to come back… it was too painful for her, my mother moved on…"

Asuka shuddered as she heard that, she didn't want to think how she would have felt if her mother had decided that she wanted to move on instead of being reincarnated, even though that wasn't really the proper word for the process. Shinji nodded solemnly, he understood both what Kenji was going through and at the same time he knew why the boy's mother did what she did. His mother had explained to him that being a part of the Evangelion was a rather painful and mind shattering experience. He had experienced a bit of that himself after being absorbed by Unit-01 in the incident surrounding the 14th's attack.

"What happened to that other pilot?" Asuka asked, trying to change the subject from an obviously uncomfortable subject for all of them.

"You mean Cassandra? She's around town from what I heard, I think her mother decided to remain and get a new body, but aside from that I don't know really. The only reason I even know her is because we worked together." Kenji replied, grateful for the turn in the conversation. "She's a real bitch really, bordering on psychotic if you asked me. When she heard that we might be fighting one of the former pilots, she couldn't get into her Eva soon enough."

"That sounds partly familiar…" Asuka said thoughtfully. "I might have done something similar before Third Impact, though, I wouldn't have been that happy to fight another pilot. Except maybe in an attempt to prove myself…"

"You were like that?" Kenji asked, partly shocked.

"Couldn't you tell?" Asuka replied with a chuckle. "I wrecked everything in my path just because I was angry. Though if anyone had a right to be pissed of, that would have been Shinji, we were going after his father after all."

"It doesn't matter Asuka, you've changed a lot after Third Impact, we both have." Shinji said while placing his arms around her and pulling her close. Asuka rested her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Of course, I aim to be the best after all." Asuka replied, though it lacked the old arrogant tone. 'It will be a long time until I'll be able to talk about most of what happened back then without getting worked up, except for Shinji that is…'

"Well, it was nice running into you guys, but I should get going. See ya some other time." Kenji said going on his way. 'Heh, wouldn't want to interrupt the two lovebirds and their moment.'

Shinji and Asuka remained in their embrace for a few minutes, not really noticing that Kenji had left, they wouldn't have cared if he had stayed anyway. When they eventually break their embrace they continue to walk through the park enjoying a bit of silence. Thus neither one said anything, there was no need for words at the moment, they would have only ruined the moment. For now, it didn't matter that they were going to leave in a very dangerous mission, they would worry about it later.

--

The following day the two teens said their goodbyes to Misato and Kaji and then they met up with John in Sanctuary's military complex. There he would be giving them their fake IDs and then they were meant to leave to Berlin, via Dirac sea express of course. Living in a Dirac sea apparently had another bonus, they were able to create exit points anywhere in the Universe and if the theories were correct, in other universes as well. Each Dirac sea was a sort of sub-bubble in space and time that could connect to that which was in-between Universes, non-space and non-time, about which no one knew anything at the time being.

"Ok, so you're here." John said when the two teens reached the departure area, it was basically a hangar that led to the outside of the gigantic sphere. "Here are your ID's and the related paperwork."

"So, I'm Alicia Smith, of German/American origin, child prodigy and with both parents deceased. Currently in college in a visit from America where I'm studying for further degrees. Wow, you actually got all of this paper work done, this looks real." Asuka said.

"While I'm supposed to be Kazuya Hayaki, while not a genius like Asuka, I mean Alicia." Shinji smirked a bit then continued. "I apparently have a black belt and I'm accompanying her from America, being her boyfriend and all. I was given up for adoption by my mother after my father abandoned both of us since she couldn't take care of me. A list of grades… the school I've been to… supposed friends in school… high school pictures… profile details…, this thing has everything that they might check."

"Well, that's the general idea." John said. "Your fake identities are both settled in data bases and all and you'd a have to do a very good search to figure it out that you guys are not who you're saying."

"There's only one problem, this girl has a somewhat lighter red hair color." Asuka replied. "I take it that I was supposed to dye my hair right?"

"Not exactly, you can use your powers to lighten the color of your hair in the same way you would by bleaching it. It's fairly easy and it doesn't have to completely bleach your hair, while also leaving it just as healthy." John replied. Just focus a bit and experiment with this." The man handed Asuka a clump of cut red hair from a bag he had with him. "It might not work in your first go, that's why you should try on something else than you own hair."

"Yea yea, just give me a minute…" Asuka mumbled.

"By the way, I suppose that you were thinking about my ability to influence my body when you made this picture right?" Shinji said looking over the pictures of "himself" as Kazuya. The boy in the picture was just as tall as Shinji, but seemed more muscular than Shinji and had golden blond hair with green eyes.

"Yes, I talked with Sarah, you can pull of the change, but I we get in any fights, you'll probable revert back to normal, especially if you use your ability to pull of battle related changes to your body." John said. "You know what to do better than I do."

"Ok then…" Shinji said. He looked at the picture that forced his body to change accordingly, the sight was a bit strange I you looked at it. First, Shinji's muscles became a bit bulkier and the bones widened a bit, giving him a wider frame, just like the boy in the picture. Then his eyes changed color to green while his hair retracted back to his skull leaving him bald for less than a second, his hair grew out again only that it was now golden blond. "How's that?"

"Holy shit!" Asuka said, her mouth wide open. "That was just so freaky…"

"Well, that was definitely impressive…" John said looking at Shinji, he looked like the mirror image of the boy in the picture, it was impossible to tell who he really was. "With your ability, you can look in any way you like and could impersonate anyone."

"Yea, I guess, though it feels kind of weird." Shinji said. "Kind of how Asuka feels when she keeps her wings inside her body for too long."

"Well, from what Sarah told me, it's because you ordered your body to take a shape which is different from what your genetic makeup dictates." John replied. "Now let's go, we have to set up in Berlin and get used a bit with the town, then we get down to business."

"Let's go!" Asuka said enthusiastically, despite the fact that she didn't want to go to Berlin. John simply rolled his eyes at her tone while Shinji smiled and took hold of her hand. The three got in the ship which was meant to take them out to Berlin.

These ships were made strictly with the knowledge from Old Earth. A normal rocket engine was useless in a Dirac sea, the only real way to move in one was by use of an AT field which could propel your body or objects without relying on the surrounding area. Normal laws of physics didn't work in the Dirac sea, an action didn't always result in an equal reaction and in that twisted universe you could just as well reach the opposite result depending on how it reacted to the wills and feelings and dreams of the people within it. A Dirac sea reacted to two things, will power and AT fields, or the light of the soul. Going on will alone was far to dangerous because little was known about those manifestations, so the use of an AT filed was necessary.

Thus the ship was made in such a way that it relied on the AT field of the pilot. It was powered by an S2 engine installed without an organic base that was controlled by the pilot through two crystals that pilot held in his hands. Any other functions were controlled directly through mental commands. Things like internal and external lights, defensive AT field usage as well as offensive and plus the use of certain weaponry was directly directed from the pilot's mind, fact which made the ship not only very easy t control but it also turned it into a dangerous machine that could hold its own in very tough conditions.

For now though, it only served to deliver the three passengers to Berlin and then act as a temporary hidden command post manned by three more of Sanctuary's operatives. It would also help John to remain in contact with Sanctuary throughout their mission.

--

"So this is Berlin huh?" Shinji asked as they entered town from their dropout point.

"Yup, old annoying and ugly Berlin." Asuka replied. "I hated this city, I still hate it…" Shinji didn't reply, instead he held her hand silently, understanding what she was going through.

"Ok, let's get to our hotels." John said. "Also, I hope that I won't regret leaving you two alone in your own hotel room." John eyed the two teens with a serious look. Shinji blushed at what the older man was implying while Asuka glared at him.

"We're not Kaji and Misato, John!" Asuka said.

"I know, I was just kidding!" John replied smiling a bit. "Ok, go and check, I'll be doing the same. Then maybe we should all wander around town a bit or something. Tomorrow we all meet for a short breakfast at this restaurant and we plan from there. Understood?"

"Loud and clear." Asuka said sarcastically.

"Yup." Shinji replied simply.

"Good then." John said going on his own way and leaving the two teens to head out to their own hotel. John had decided that their group should split up in two to avoid raising suspicions. He would be staying on his own while they were going to be staying together in their own hotel. SEELE was expecting a group of three people, no matter what move they made. One adult and two teens, but this way, they had nothing to go on and it made the chances of them being found out smaller.

John also decided to allow Shinji and Asuka to room together, even if they were in different hotel at quite some distance from him. The reason was rather simple though, SEELE had no idea how much the two pilots had changed or that they were involved with each other, so they wouldn't suspect a couple like them so easily. Also, it was unlikely that SEELE imagined that they were going here of all places, where they couldn't maneuver as easily or use their avatars.

Shinji and Asuka reached their hotel quickly and checked in, then they went to their assigned room to see what the conditions were and to leave their luggage. John made reservations at a rather good hotel and it was easy to notice, the hotel room was large and it had luxury conditions, including a large bed. As soon as the luggage was set down, Asuka let her wings free as they were getting uncomfortable.

"Well, this is a great room." Asuka said as she lay in the bed with her back up, she spread her wings the tips going out of the bed by far, despite the size of it. "It feels good to stretch out a bit. Shinji, could you give me a massage, my back feels sore."

"Sure thing Asuka." Shinji replied and got to his task at hand. It became a regular occurrence for him ever since Asuka grew the wings, the area where they came out from her back was somewhat sensitive and it was apparently very pleasant for her to have it massaged. Despite the fact that he felt a bit embarrassed when it came to their relationship in public, when in private he didn't have any problems, there was no real reason to be shy around her, it wasn't like she had much left to surprise him with.

"Ah, that feels so good…" Asuka sighed happily. "You're getting very good at this."

"Well, I do aim to please." Shinji said with a smirk, Asuka couldn't see him, but she imagined she could hear him grinning. "So, this is where you grew up, it looks better than the place where my father sent me."

"Yea, I'll give you that." Asuka agreed with that fact since she saw where Shinji lived with his uncle from the boy's memories. "This city still sucks. You know what's even worse? We could run into my father and unlike you, I'll either turn him into paste as soon as I see him or I'll capture him and kill him slowly by torturing him with my powers."

Surprisingly Shinji chuckled. "Well, tell me what you want and I'll get him myself. There are some really interesting things I can do with my powers as well."

Asuka smiled at that, she almost expected Shinji to disagree with her or to try to tell her that it was a bad idea. Still, she forgot how much he loved her, she should have known that he would say something like that. For her he brought the whole world back, despite the fact that he could have done anything in that time, he could have toyed with the world or changed it and even her I he wanted to, he had held that power in his hands.

"Thanks Shinji, I'll think about this, it's so damn confusing." Asuka said. "I've got half the mind to look for him… Hey wait! I CAN look for him, without even moving from this spot! It's time for some practice!" Asuka's eyes glowed red as she began to use her powers, she was extending her mind, searching for the man. It didn't matter where he was hiding or that her powers weren't at full potential yet, she was more that strong enough to find a normal human and give him a piece of her mind from right here.

Shinji sighed and stopped from what he was doing, he really pitied the man. He didn't know if she could kill him from such a distance, but she could certainly screw his head so hard that it would make her own experience look like a joke. Presuming that he was in the current rage of her powers.

--

Hans Langley Sohryu was a very proud man with a powerful personality. People that knew him were afraid to get on his bad side and not because he was involved with SEELE, but because he was quite intimidating, the only man known to be more influential than him with his attitude and mannerisms alone had been Gendo Ikari, who was thought dead by SEELE. SEELE, who he grew to despise that name in all these years, they had cost him so much and he believed that there was no redemption for his sins.

The man was currently at his home, he was sitting alone, reading a news paper on the recent events in the world. All of the NERV personnel from the Japanese branch was still missing, along with his daughter. From what he understood from SEELE, they were looking for her, but no one knew why, especially since a lot of things changed in the organization ever since Third Impact, something was going on and what ever it was it wasn't in those bastards favor, reason for which he could only smile.

He then felt a strange sensation, it started in his spine and worked it's way up to his head, that's when he realized that he couldn't move for some reason. When the strange feeling finally reached his brain, his world exploded in pain and colors, he felt as if the whole room was spinning, when he could see again, he was on his back surrounded by white nothing. He got to his feet and that was when he saw her, his daughter, standing before him dressed in some kind of armor and with her eyes slightly ablaze with some sort of red energy, from her back sprouted two incredible red wings with flame patterns. Hans couldn't believe the sight before him, it didn't make sense. Maybe SEELE decided that he was useless and had poisoned him and now he was slowly dying. It could have been worse he supposed, but that still didn't explain what he was seeing right now before him.

"Asuka?" He asked, curiosity and a certain hope clearly audible in his voice.

"Hello, _papa_!" The word was spat with so much venom that Hans recoiled in fear, he was expecting her to hate him, but he didn't expect her hate to have such a physical effect on him. "It's been quite a bit since we last saw one another wasn't it?"

"It has been quite some time." He agreed. "So it is you… How is this possible?"

"Hm… you really don't know… I thought you were involved enough with SEELE to know about this…" Asuka said, confused. She could tell if he was lying to her or not, she could just as well rip all of his memories from his head and get it over with, but she wanted to speak with the man, she wanted to see if he was going to try and lie to her, then she was going to decide what she would do to him. If he really did kill her mother, then she would literally rip him to small bloody pieces with her powers, he was close enough to do that. Obviously she would make him suffer greatly before that.

"Know what? All I know is that SEELE is looking for you and the Third Child, but other than that no one knows anything. I have no idea what's going on there and how come you know about them?" Hans asked.

"That's not important, what you know about what happened to me isn't why I bothered to use my powers on you." Asuka said. "I want to know if you killed my mother or not."

"I didn't! How could you believe that?!" Hans replied in a state of shock. Asuka simply frowned, surprised that he said the truth, apparently John's sources made mistakes as well. She supposed that no one was perfect in the end, fact which meant that she had to get to the whole truth on her own.

"Then what happened? I know you were ordered by SEELE to ensure that her soul got into the Eva." Asuka stated, her voice devoid of any emotion.

"So that was why they insisted that she was the test pilot and started toying with my life as they did…" Hans stated and sighed. "Well, this has a lot to do with that woman I married after you mother was killed… You know that she was a doctor, a very specialized psychiatrist as well. What you don't know is that she was also a high ranking SEELE agent as well, tasked with overseeing the development of your personality." He sighed sadly before continuing. "I received the order of assisting her in dealing with you and Kyoko. I had no idea what to do about your mother, but she did, she arranged her death and with a couple of assistants that also were also SEELE agents, she killed her and arranged the scene that you saw… I… I… I had to… ensure… that you saw it…"

Hans remained silent, he either didn't know what else to say or couldn't go on anymore. Asuka mulled all that through her head, she didn't know what surprised her more, the fact that he was telling the truth, or the fact that he didn't attempt to lie at all. Maybe he still had a shred of innocence and he knew it, or maybe it was something else, maybe he thought he was dreaming or hallucinating.

"Did you even love my mother? Did you love me at all?" She asked.

"I didn't love Kyoko in the romantic sense, but she did love me… At first, she kept trying to get my attention, but I turned her down all the time, knowing full well what kind of job I had and that my life could end at the whim of men I didn't even know. Still, when SEELE discovered her potential and usefulness in the Project E, they ordered me to allow her to get close, and we ended together, did you know that she proposed to me after I returned from a mission with a bullet ridden shoulder?" Hans chuckled a bit and Asuka viewed the specific memory as he recalled it. "I should have refused, I should have said no, but she was so sad and I had my orders, plus, I thought that maybe I 

could grow to love her. Apparently I never had the chance to do that… Something changed when you were born, I was surprisingly happy and I wanted you to be happy, but SEELE had other plans, for your mother and for you as well… All that I did after you were born, even when working or SEELE was to ensure that you at least survived, hoping that one day you could get a shot at happiness."

"You… did…?" Asuka whispered.

"Yes, you see, I never intended to marry that woman and I never intended to let all those things to happen to you. SEELE threatened to kill you and use some other child if I didn't obey their orders. It was a no-win situation. If I defied them and attempted to run with you, presuming that I could have ensured our survival, we would have led a life and the run and they would have gotten some other child to do the job you were meant to do in their project. On the other hand, I could choose to obey them, let them toy with your head and use you, but you would survive and in the end you could break free and maybe find happiness somehow. No matter what I did, I was doomed. So I chose the second option, marrying that woman and allowing her to "work" with you and twist your psyche. Still, I did defy them a bit and that's why I encouraged you to work so hard with your academic studies, so that you would spend less time with that woman and thus change in your own ways."

He lapsed in silence once more, Asuka also remaining silent. All in all, she couldn't stay angry at her father anymore, he did love her and he didn't have any choice in the matter. She knew that she could have been dead if he didn't choose what he did. He might have ensured that they both survived and maybe she wouldn't have developed her initial feelings of hatred in that kind of situation, but he chose to be hated than to know that she could die pointlessly with no kind of chance to live her life. In a way she could be grateful, she would have never met Shinji if things didn't turn out like this and she wouldn't have received these powers either.

"Do you have any idea what SEELE wanted from me? Why they wanted me to act as I did?" She asked.

"Well, you had two roles for them, one was extra support and cannon fodder for the other two. In that mindset you couldn't be really effective because you wouldn't be an effective team mate. The other reason was the Third Child, you were meant to make him feel even more worthless with your attitude and make him hate the life he lived. Why? I have no idea, but that was what you were supposed to do…" Hans said, shuddering at the thought, still, seeing how his daughter acted now made him think that SEELE either didn't do the job as well as they thought they did or something happened that had an even stronger influence on the girl.

Asuka smiled at that, SEELE probably didn't plan on falling in love with Shinji as she did. They probably never expected him to see the scared girl that she tried to hide or for her to notice his incredible inner strength. Then again, SEELE underestimated a lot of people, thinking that they would work to their designs like machines. Humans aren't machines though and the fact that they always have a choice of some sort available to them made them unpredictable, no matter how good your plan was or how smart you were. So, they screwed up their grand design through the simple fact that she was a girl and he was a boy and they had lot in common. That was a bit ironic if you looked at it…

"Well, it's obvious it didn't work… I guess I have to say that… I'm a bit sorry, I didn't know things were like that and I thought that you killed momma… On the other hand, I'll be killing that damn slut that thought it was right to play with my head. I'll show her how you can REALLY screw someone's head!" Asuka said, ending it while almost yelling. She wasn't angry at her father anymore, but years of hate don't just go away, in this case they were directed to a new target that was already marked for a lot of pain. Now it just escalated to death through mind rape.

"Well, if you can contact me like this where ever you are, then I suppose that you could kill her as well." Hans said then shook his head. "Are you sure that you want to go down that path? She does deserve death, but do you really think that it's worth becoming a murderer just for the sake of revenge?"

"I'll think about it…" Asuka said. "I may not kill her, I might force her in the same situation my mother was in only that she'll really kill herself when I'm through with her. Well, I'm done here, maybe we'll meet again, maybe not, I don't care."

With that said, Asuka disappeared and Hans woke up in the same chair, only that his newspaper was on the floor, dropped because of suddenly numb fingers. He looked at the watch he had and noticed that only five minutes or so had passed since the beginning of his paralysis problem. One would normally dismiss such an event as a strange dream, but he was certain that this was not the case. If it was real, then it meant that SEELE was in for a lot of trouble. He chuckled, hoping that what ever was going on with his daughter was going to bring an end to the cursed organization.

--

Asuka meanwhile "returned" back to Shinji and was now lying in his arms thinking, she didn't say a word since she got back and Shinji didn't question her about it. She needed to think and he understood that, what ever it was she did and found out in her encounter with her father. So he just provided her comfort and waited for her to sort out what ever was going on in her head. It didn't matter to him what happened or if she killed the man or not, the only thing that mattered was that he would stand by her side no matter what.

As for Asuka, she was grateful for Shinji's understanding of the matter and was attempting to sort out her thoughts. On one hand she understood that her father had been a pawn in the whole thing, just like her, even if he was more involved with the inner workings of SEELE than she ever was at that time. On the other hand, she wanted to kill her step mother, that damn woman had screwed up her childhood intentionally and that was not something she was willing to forgive. Especially since it was obvious that SEELE had wanted her to break while fighting the 15th, just like Gendo had wanted Rei to die while fighting the 16th and they probably sent Kaworu knowing that he would break Shinji somehow.

They wanted to disable the pilots before their grand scheme took place and she was "programmed" to break from her early childhood just like Shinji was programmed to accept Instrumentality and Rei was prepared as that bastard's doll. All three of them were screwed up intentionally and she wouldn't have been surprised if she found out that Shinji's uncle had been prepared and paid by either SEELE or Gendo to ensure that Shinji was introverted and scared of human interaction. It wasn't an unlikely scenario, one which should be looked into after this whole deal with SEELE was over and done with.

"It's funny, but I ended up giving him a second chance in a way." Asuka said, finally speaking after a half an hour of silence. "He was being used by SEELE, just like all of us. It also turns up that my step mother was one of SEELE's agents meant to screw around with my head. So I still have one person on which I'll let my wrath loose. Though, I'll wait, I want to have time to enjoy it and I don't want to blow our cover here. After the mission I'll find a couple of minutes to take care of all this."

"It'll be alright." Shinji replied, holding her tighter. "How do you feel?"

"Honestly? I feel confused, maybe even a little relieved that things didn't turn out the way I was expecting them to turn." Asuka said. "As funny as it may seem, I still hoped that my father loved me, despite all that happened."

"It's not funny, I know how you feel. I felt the same way about my father. I wanted him to think about me as more than just a tool. I have no idea what he's thinking of now, but at least I know I'm not a tool for him anymore." Shinji replied. "I'm sure it will be alright…"

"I sure hope so Shinji, I sure hope so…" Asuka said. "It's incredible how far those bastards were willing to go for their plans, how many people they manipulated. I mean, this was all so elaborate and it seems to me that they had almost everything covered."

"Almost, but the two of us ruined their plans, as screwed up as we were." Shinji said while chuckling a bit. "I wonder how they would react if they ever found out why their whole plan failed. I'm sure that the real reason would leave them with their jaws hanging."

"More than likely…" Asuka smiled. "I want to get some sleep now, a lot more happened today than I expected and I'm feeling a bit tired…"

"Ok Asuka…" Shinji said while flicking the light switch with his AT field without moving from the bed.

--

The following day they met up with John at the designated restaurant. The two teens arrived there and found John already at a table, he waved to them and waited for them to set themselves. He smiled as they took their seats and gave them two menus to browse through for breakfast.

"Before you ask, I already checked, there's no one here that could bother us and everyone in here is outside hearing range. Plus, If we switch to Japanese, no one will know what we're saying anyway." John said as the two looked through their menus. "The initial plan is really simple. As I said before, what comes after it is the real problem."

"So what's the big deal?" Asuka asked as Shinji ordered breakfast for the three of them. "What do we have to do here?"

"Well, for starters, since you two came along, things will be somewhat simpler." John said with a slight smile. "You can contact the scientists we're looking for with your powers. SEELE has no way of knowing and it will ensure that our conversations can't be tracked. The Old Men won't know anything until after we've made our move because they won't have any means of knowing that they were contacted in the first place."

"Ok, there's one problem here, I can't contact anyone unless I know their names, and how they look plus a few things about what they do and stuff like that. If I don't know those things, then I'd literally have to sweep through everyone's mind and look at their thoughts to see who they are." Asuka replied.

John actually smirked at that. "You didn't think that I wasn't prepared for that did you Asuka?" As he said that he reached under the table and took out a briefcase. "This contains the files on all the people that are in that rather nasty situation because of the Old Men. Each file contains several pictures of the respective persons and as much information as we could gather. It's pretty much as you can clearly see yourself. Then again, it's rather easy to hack into computers that have organic brains when you have powers like us."

Asuka took the briefcase and placed it under the table between her and Shinji. "Ok, so I use my powers to contact them, then what?"

"You find out the whole situation and report it to me exactly. If you're able to, you should simply send the memory of the encounter in my head. That way we don't have to meet all the time and that will ensure that we won't be discovered." John said looking around a bit. "We can't take any chances with this. I'll tell you over time what to say to those guys depending on what you report. Don't try t rush this, be patient with those people and let them build their trust towards you, if you feel that they're loyal to SEELE, tell that to those that aren't and avoid revealing any sort of information to them. If you can you should even misinform them."

"What do we do in the mean time?" Shinji asked knowing that Asuka could jump through minds for only limited amounts of time because her own mind was under stress while using her powers in that manner. She was getting better at it, but for now she had some pretty strict limits.

"Well, sight see and enjoy the vacation? As I said, there's no reason to rush this." John replied. "Even if you could keep going through contacts constantly, there would be no way that those people could handle it or that they'd be willing to listen to you for long periods of time. You'll probably have to set up "meeting" times and such."

"Well, that's good I guess." Shinji said a bit uneasily. He didn't really want to drag this too long, he didn't feel safe here especially without his avatar close by. Plus there was something else, he could feel the clones deep below the city, he couldn't tell how many there were, but there were a lot of them, that was for sure. The fact that he could also sense that they lacked souls was disturbing, he could feel some sort of hunger from within them, one which he couldn't understand. Another thing that he felt was a faint web surrounding all of them, that had to be how the four bastards controlled them, still his powers were too weak and too unrefined to allow him to do anything about that web, for now at least.

"We'll have lots of fun Shinji! I know this town inside and out, it may not be the best place in the world where I want to be right now, but at least I know what we can do to pass the time." Asuka said cheerfully, getting a smile out of Shinji and a roll of the eyes from John. "You're just jealous!" Asuka said when she noticed John's reaction.

"Maybe I am, but not for the reasons you think I am." John replied. "I'm envious of what you two have together."

"Why is that?" Shinji asked, his voice was trembling slightly, feeling that they stepped in uncertain waters.

"Well, I guess you should know. You see, a long time ago I did have a wife. She died of old age long before I did. We were both human, but my powers allowed me to outlive her and even our children at the time, despite the fact that they inherited quite a few of my powers. Still, it was a long time ago and I still miss her. When people like me fall in love, we stay true to our one love and never remarry or anything like that. On the Old Earth, we believed that the bond forged through marriage was an eternal one and that the two that were married were to be together forever even after death. I hold on to that belief and I passed it on to all those in Sanctuary, especially to my children and grandchildren."

"Then, what's up with Sarah? She keeps dropping by the house and you two seem very close to one another." Asuka asked confused since she had believed that there something going on between the two. Though without using her powers on them she had no sure way of knowing.

"She's the last of my line if you will. She's a straight line descendant. If I were to die, my powers would be added to hers directly as no other intermediaries are alive today. I suspect that it would probably raise her powers to the incredible stance I once had, but that wouldn't mean much outside Sanctuary." John replied.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked after a few moments of silence.

"Sarah is currently the one who's keeping Sanctuary together n the Dirac Sea, if she leaves, it would fall apart and no one else is trained to handle her position for now, it also takes years to be prepared for this job." John replied. "The reason for this unusual position is the fact that Sanctuary wasn't this large from the very beginning. It had to be expanded because of the new situation and though I had the knowledge to make other spheres like the initial four we had, I didn't have neither the conditions nor the tools so to speak. Plus those were created by my father at full strength with the help of many others, they're as close to indestructible as you can get."

"Enough of this though, you guys should get going and start working or enjoying the day if you don't want to work right away after breakfast." John continued as he got up from the table, paid the bill then left without saying another word.

The two teens sat in silence after all they had been told, wondering just how much they didn't know about Sanctuary and its secrets. Both of them were silently wondering if they would ever know enough to say that they actually "knew" that place…

To be continued…

A/N: Ok well, this is it with the 7th chapter, I didn't really think that i could get things done this quickly, but chapter eight was rather easy to get out due to the fact that I planned it ever since I started to write the fic. If you can't wait you'll have to see it one evamade, otherwise, you'll have to wait until the next update.

As for the thing with posting more stories at once, so far, I've learned that 6 people agree with me posting them as long as I finish the story, two people just think that I should do it anyway and two people hate the way I'm writing or have a twisted sense of humor. That and the almost inexistent feedback in the reviews says that that majority of those that know I even exist think that I should post more fics.

So, I'll have another poll in my profile, this time you can choose between the two dominating ideas in my head, the winner will get posted along side Continuum, even if it will have more random updates. You can also send PM's or emails stating why you want this idea or the other, the time for this is three weeks, which will give me time to ready the first chapter in both fics, allowing me to post the chapter as soon as the decision is final, no matter what it is.


	8. Chapter 8

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 8: Wrath of Angels

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

A/N: Here's chapter 8, this was actually written pretty fast compared to other chapters. Read and review, though I don't particularly care about the last part, they do help me improve and if I improve that means you'll probably like the story more. Criticism which has an actual logic is appreciated, as for flames, I'll just consume them like all negative things thrown at me and only make me stronger and EVEN MORE stubborn.

It had been a week and three days since the mission began and the time to act was approaching rapidly. It took Asuka some time to contact everyone that had to be contacted, but it took even longer to set a course of action. It wasn't something easy, there was only once chance to get things right and they weren't going to get a second chance with this. Not to mention that if they took a wrong step, it could end up with a disaster large enough to wipe out all of Berlin, if not more.

Things were looking good, there were no signs that SEELE detected them or that they even suspected that they were doing something. Still, John felt that something was wrong, well not wrong, he could place the feeling under the fact that it was time. Neither Shinji nor Asuka were able to notice these things, the signs were there, but the two of them were too inexperienced with emotions and reading them in others to notice such subtle signs. Also, because of John's age, it was difficult to read him, the only person who could truly do that was back in Sanctuary, unable to leave it as long as it stayed hidden in the Dirac sea.

Still, the man didn't want the two teenagers to learn that he was preparing for something rather ugly, no one could know except Sarah. Still, after this, there would be no turning back and SEELE's end would be assured, no matter what they would do. Those old fools had no idea what they were trying to do and he would use their own idea against them, even if in a different way than they imagined.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Asuka enjoyed what ever free time they had during this mission together, it was strange for Asuka, though she hated the city and though it brought back many dark memories of loneliness and pain, she was able to make new memories to overpower the bad ones along side with Shinji. Shinji just enjoyed his time with Asuka, even now it all felt a bit like a strange dream, though every time he held her in his arms, he was more sure than ever that it was reality. For the two of them, it was a great time.

Still, the fun times were going to be over soon for the couple as the final stage of the mission would begin right the following day. The idea was quite simple, a meeting was going to be in order in the secret complex underneath the NERV base, obviously all of the researchers and their assistants plus any important members would be attending. Because of these large meetings that had to take place from time to time, the conference room was quite large since it also needed space for demonstrations of any kind. It was large enough that a small ship could come in the room.

So the plan was for them to enter the room during the meeting and open the Dirac sea there, after that, they would evacuate everyone from the area and bring in the Mechanical squads. From there, it was full out war which would decimate the base from within no matter what SEELE did. Plus, unless those four were there, it was unlikely that the situation would degenerate too much. Also, since that was an easy to expose location, it was highly 

unlikely that those four would gather there of all places where they could be caught of guard and supposedly even slaughtered.

Even they knew that if pushed, John would raise Berlin of the face of the Earth to get rid of the four of them, so they weren't foolish enough to think that hiding in a populated area would help them. At least, that's what John hoped, he didn't want to kill innocents, but sometimes, it didn't matter, especially in a situation like this. Those four had to die as soon as possible, no matter what the price. If they became to strong, the death of millions could easily turn into the death of the entire planet.

--

John was talking with Sarah over the "phone", that was possible because the ship that dropped them here was still outside town acting as a relay between Berlin and Sanctuary. He knew that Sarah had to e prepared and as the conversation went through their usual "how do you do" routines, John decided that there was no point staling it.

"Sarah, I have to let you know that the time is now, tomorrow I will do it. You know what will happen on your end and you have to be prepared." John said calmly.

"WHAT?! THIS SOON?!" Sarah yelled back so hard that she would have made Asuka proud. John almost snickered at that thought but thought better and controlled himself. "You can't be serious, it's too early, I don't know if I can handle it."

"You're as ready as you'll ever be…" John said, cutting her of before she could complain. "We might not have another field mission as certain as this one, it would be too risky in more unstable conditions. So, it has to be now I'm afraid. I've waited long enough and they trust me enough for this to take place."

"There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is it?" Sarah asked. "Because of you I lied to them… Then again, I never expected it to be a lie…"

"I never expected it to turn out this way Sarah." John replied sadly. "There's no other way to obtain that power, the world needs that power to act quickly, to stop those abominations. You shouldn't be to surprised since I will pay for my sins when all is done."

"What do you think people will think of you when all this is said and done?" Sarah asked. "No one will expect this back home… I don't know if I'll be able to forgive you if things go the way I think they will…"

"No one will Sarah, no one will and I will pay for that. Yet I think that the death of one person will be a small price to save the whole world." John replied. "I can be executed or something when all is said and done."

"You're lucky that I owe you to much to betray you…" Sarah said. "This plan is too cruel to be accepted."

"No Sarah, you don't know how cruel the real world is, you're being naïve and even more idealistic than I ever was." John replied thoughtfully. "Maybe one day you'll understand, maybe even tomorrow."

"Who will you strike at?"

"The girl, it's how it must be. After that, well, let's say that the Old Men will have to use up all of their resources to stop what will be coming against them." John replied. "I'll see you soon Sarah, tomorrow everything will be made clear."

--

Sarah looked ahead after the transmission was over. She thought about all that was said and done, she thought about John's plans and decided that there was something that she could do about it, even if there would be hell to pay afterwards.

She got up and she went to Unit-01's maintenance throne, she stood on a platform right before the face of the great behemoth. She knew that Shinji could hear her.

"Shinji, I know that you don't understand, but I will send Unit-01 to you, it will arrive during the battle tomorrow. I have a feeling that you will need it." Sarah said then paused. "I ask you to trust me, it will feel weird for your avatar, but it will be there when you'll need it. Nod once if you want me to go ahead, but don't speak, no one must know. Take care of everyone, keep Asuka and John safe, you may be the only one who can."

The avatar's eyes light up and its gaze seemed thoughtful, then after a few minutes it nodded. Sarah smiled and then she raised her arms, an arc of energy formed between them. Soon, the whole room was shaking and her eyes were shinning with golden light, even her hair seemed to radiate energy. The room was now windy and some alarms were blaring, obviously what ever was going on wasn't meant to happen. Then, right before the avatar, what seemed to be a black hole formed. The monstrous weapon disappeared in it and Sarah collapsed on her knees, that took a lot out of her.

Soldiers entered the room, but all they saw was the fact that Unit-01 and its fearsome weapon were missing, but there was no trace as to what happened to it. The sensors reported a Dirac sea type anomaly in the room, but the source was unknown and how it even happened in the main sphere was an even bigger question. Sarah, despite her weakened state had managed to run of before anyone could question what she was doing there. Things would be better this way she hoped.

She ran of to her home as fast as she was able to considering her condition. Once she got there she went on a straight line to the bedroom and there she collapsed on her bed without even thinking of changing. She knew that she wouldn't wake up until long after it was all over, the only thing that was left to do was to hope that she was right, since not even she had full knowledge of John's plans.

--

The following day in Berlin, two teens and one adult met in an empty warehouse, all dressed in armors. All three of them had serious expressions on their faces, they knew that the first part of the strike would be like a blitzkrieg, swift and deadly, they could only hope that they were able to keep up the pace before the enemy had a chance to recover and hopefully end it all before it even fully began.

"Ok, the meeting will begin in half an hour, you two know the plan, we can't afford any mishaps." John said as he began to channel energy in his right palm. Asuka stood right in front of him and was doing the same. "Five minutes after the meeting begins, we release all of this energy in a straight line down and break through right to them. We fly down there and you know the rest."

"Yea, and I'm going first." Shinji said, waiting for it all to begin, the idea wasn't all that appealing and the thought of fighting Kaworu clones wasn't all that pleasant, but then again it was better than fighting real humans, that he wouldn't have handled at all, he doubted that he would even over many years.

"Well, you are the most resilient out of the group and they don't know the extent or full nature of your powers." John replied. "Not to mention that they don't know that you're as adaptable as you are."

"Even so, I still want to say that I don't like this one it." Shinji said.

"It's too late to back out now." John said as both his and Asuka's hands light up with energy. Between the two of them formed a sphere of energy that suddenly exploded downwards.

Shinji didn't even wait for the dust to clear and the blast to finish it's descent. He jumped after the wave of energy, reaching the conference room in mere moments. For those who were inside, it looked as if a human figure exploded downwards from the roof and then jumped forward with incredible speed, not even pausing to see where it landed.

Shinji felt two AT fields blaring, two guards were inside the room, right near the door. So as soon as the ground was in reach of his legs, he pushed towards them, extending his sword from the small form and slashed while crouching. The clones fired, but their shots hit only air as Shinji slashed the first in half in one swift movement, the second didn't get the chance to re-aim as Shinji moved the sword and cut its legs at knee level the as it fell he cut its head of.

What was truly frightening out of this display was the fact that the boy had his eyes closed all throughout the movements. He didn't stop there though, he didn't need his eyes, his other senses were enough for the environment around him and the AT fields of his enemies were enough to fight them. Shinji could describe what he felt about them in one word, hollow, they were like shells of energy that were driven by outside forces. The sensation made him angry for some reason, like they were some sort of abomination that his very blood wanted to destroy. He didn't like the sensation but at the same time he felt content with it, he was forced to act on it, to seek and kill these monstrous experiments.

Meanwhile, Asuka and John landed in the room just as Shinji blasted through the doors and right into a couple of more guards. Asuka immediately rushed after him, her weapon extending at her command and her eyes lighting with power. John just shook his head as the two rushed out, it was part of the plan technically speaking, but Shinji going on a rampage wasn't exactly what he had expected. Still, it was all for the better where he was concerned.

He raised his hands and forced an opening to the Dirac sea to open in the middle of the room as the people in it headed around him. From the sea, a ship came out and soon, the armored forces of Sanctuary were exiting as well, as the ones that were forced to work for SEELE were evacuated. They cheered as the soldiers didn't really bother with the doors and broke through the walls, searching for the closest enemies. John simply smirked as his troops were moving out. He took out his own swords and extended his blade tentacles, this would be interesting, that was certain.

"Try to keep in groups of four at the least or group up with either Shinji or Asuka!" John yelled. "I want this facility cleaned as soon as possible! No screw ups!" He then felt that something was amiss, he looked up and jumped out of the way right in time to avoid the blast that came from above him.

Before him landed a 4 meter tall creature, its head was elongated backwards, it had muscular arms, its whole body was covered in heavy bone plates, from its shoulders protruded three spikes. It had legs which ended in two large digits, though it was standing on them. Its leg structure reminded John of birds, or better yet, dinosaurs, most likely inspired by raptors. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth, but those were not what worried John, the energetic blades that extended from that thing's forearms were what bothered him. He covered his blades with AT fields as that thing took a single step forward, seeming to grin at him.

Some of the armored soldiers there raised their weapons towards it. John shook his head, he could feel that this thing was far out of their league, it was a walking nightmare, something he himself didn't know if he could fight. What was even worse was the fact that some sort of energy field was spread in the area as soon as that thing landed, he couldn't contact either Shinji nor Asuka and he was sure that radio or other signals were jammed as well. The answer was obvious, this was some sort of trap, SEELE found out somehow that they were coming. John swore.

"Get out of here, find Shinji or Asuka and tell them to look for me, GO!" He yelled on top of his lungs as he charged towards the thing, preventing it from attacking any of the soldiers in the room.

He clashed his swords with its energy blades and tried to cut it to pieces with his tentacles. To his surprise, they simply bounced of the solid armor, he jumped back and released a blast of energy into the creature, but the energy coursed over the armor and was absorbed. Before he could even blink, the blast he fired was returned slightly weaker from the spikes on the shoulders, throwing John through a wall.

"SEELE sends its regards Founder of Sanctuary. This is your end, I will consume your power and that of the Children and bring forth what my master desire!" The creature said as it stalked towards him, its grin seeming to grow and acquire a rather sadistic look.

"You'll never succeed." John replied.

"Do not be foolish, there is no way that you can harm me, you didn't have the means to create the necessary weapons to harm one such as me!" The creature replied. "You are dead, and you know it all too well."

John didn't show it, but he knew that indeed he didn't have the necessary weapons to harm that creature, he and Asuka had no power over it. The only weapon currently in existence that could kill that thing was in Shinji's hands, all the others manufactured by Sanctuary simply didn't rise at the level of the weapons on The Old Earth, that was biting them in the ass right now. It wasn't that John didn't want to create better weapons, but they simply didn't have the conditions to create those kind of weapons. So, he had to stall it until Shinji could get there. Still there was a problem with that plan, this thing had a soul, it was engineered from one of SEELE's followers.

--

Meanwhile, Shinji had gone on a rampage just as John had predicted. He was quick to locate the room with the largest number of soldiers in it. He charged in it without even checking to see if it was a good idea or not. The soldiers had prepared a barricade there, it was well prepared enough to stop the advance of Sanctuary's forces, theoretically even Shinji. So as he jumped in he was blasted by hundreds of energy attacks from the special weapons of the clone troopers. They didn't really aim, they were just spraying the entrance with fire, attempting to annihilate anything that tried to cross though.

Asuka just managed to catch up in time to see Shinji being blasted out the door of an unknown room. He had several wounds, but the most severe seemed to be his left arm and his right eye, a hole was blasted though it right to the other side. He was thrown into the wall and slumped down before she could even blink. Asuka was paralyzed in shock, the amount of fire power that could do that to Shinji was no joke.

Shinji was in a state of shock himself and the rational part of his mind was taking a prolonged leave of absence. The memories of former battles were there though, one in particular, his first battle, the fight against Sachiel, the so called third angel. He was engulfed by the same rage as he felt the pain in his head and arm, only that this time it was much worse as his whole body hurt. He had a hole in his head, but he was angry and the S2 engines in his body 

weren't even scratched, despite the amount of damage the rest of his body received. His left arm was limp, his right arm was hanging motionless, the hilt of his sword still in it.

Instincts took over for the young Ikari as the past mingled with the present in his confused and pain riddled mind. On reflex his right hand tightened its grip on the large sword and he shakily got up, and then he did the most surprising thing for anyone that knew him. He screamed, but it soon turned into a full roar as his voice seemed to change, the vocal cords being changed by instinctual desire. The S2 engines went in overdrive, the flesh began to regenerate at an incredible rate and then it began to grow in places. The muscles grew and became denser, the skin grew tendrils in the damaged armor and began to merge with it, the flesh in the hole in his head bubbled and regenerated, forming a new eye, only now both eyes were glowing a bright blue.

Asuka watched in shock as Shinji became a human sized and more fearsome version of his avatar, only with his head exposed. The armor had changed, it was partly organic now and veins of energy only seemed to go through it from place to place. His whole body was visibly more muscular after the changes and Asuka realized that those changes were not simply at cellular level, they went down to his DNA, it was simply primal instinct driving him to adapt, survive and destroy that which threatened his life. Though, that wasn't what worried her, what worried her was the fact that she was unable to communicate telepathically with anyone, the only connection she could still make was with Shinji, but his higher brain functions were pretty much on vacation right now.

Before she could worry even more, Shinji blasted forward like a berserk Eva, he looked somewhat like Unit-01 in the recordings of his first battle, only that now he had the sword with him. The fact that he held it with one hand was proof enough of the differences that occurred. Also, Asuka needed no further proof to know that he was the one that made Unit-01 rip the third angel to pieces, as much as he thought that it was impossible, his actions now showed her that it was true.

She ran after him, she saw him blast in the barricade with absurd speed, the clones barely had enough time to fire a couple of shots. He jumped right through the crates and improvised defenses head first and then made a wide swipe with the sword, spinning his upper body and slashing through several soldiers in the first hit. Asuka wasn't one to stand aside in a situation like this and she raised her hands, she made a swipe and from them she released wide arcs of electricity, killing as many soldiers as she could hit. That was when she noticed a strange figure in the back of the room, it seemed to be focusing, Asuka could feel that there was some sort of energy field emanating from it, for her it was faint, but then she realized that it was tuned in to Shinji, he probably felt it like a car horn blowing in his ear.

She raised her right hand and formed a sphere of energy in it, then she fired it at the figure, the clone or whatever it was didn't even have time to see that it was sighted that the sphere hit it and exploded, incinerating the body. Shinji was just finishing the last of the clones in the room and so far he had used even the most grotesque methods of killing. Right now he had his fist right in the chest of one of those things, it was passing through the spine and the hand itself was visible on the other side. His whole armor was covered in blood and he looked like some kind of nightmare.

He stopped and blinked a couple of times as if he was coming out of a daze, he looked at his hand and he slowly retracted it from the dead body. He was now shaking and Asuka rushed to him just as he fell on his knees dropping the sword from his suddenly limp right hand. He was just staring at his bloodied left hand which even had small claws on the tips of his fingers.

"W… what kind of a monster am I?" He whispered, still staring at his hand.

"Shinji stop!" Asuka shouted, realizing that he was going into shock and he might even freeze there like that if she didn't act quickly. "Look at me!"

He turned his head slowly as she kneeled before him and placed her hands on either side of his face. "Take a few breaths and calm down, it's ok, calm down. You didn't do anything wrong. Listen to me Shinji, they were using some sort of field to make you go nuts like that."

Shinji nodded dumbly and soon tears were running down his face, clearing away some of the blood on his cheeks. "How can this be ok? Look at what I've done Asuka, I didn't just kill them. I slaughtered them! Like some sort of twisted animal!"

"It doesn't matter Shinji, they were pushing you, pulling at your mind to lash out in any way you could." Asuka said, now placing her arms around him. The embrace was strange because of their armors, but it didn't matter, it had the desired effect as Shinji began to calm down. Asuka just held him and whispered in his ear, hoping that nothing would jump on them in the next few minutes.

--

John wasn't doing so well, the fight was drawing to long, thus it was taking its toll on him. He had several deep gashes on his chest and stomach, his left leg was barely working because several muscles had been severed so far and the right one was also injured. The arms had been spared so far only because they were moving in time with the blades he wielded. Still, the blade tentacles were obviously shorter, they had been shortened by those energy blades that seemed to cut through any kind of normal material.

As for his enemy, he only had faint scratches on his armor plates, his swords even supported by his AT field weren't enough to handle that kind of biological armor. To make matters worse, it seemed that his enemy had an S2 organ of its own and that meant that unless he caused some injuries, that thing would be able to keep this up forever. He on the other hand wasn't that lucky, the injuries were taking their toll and slowing him down. He was wasting energy because of them and that meant that sooner or later he'd slip and that thing would get an opening.

He really couldn't understand how SEELE had the resources to create something like this, even during the war on the Old Earth, creatures with this sort of armor were very rare among Adam's forces, it was very hard to create them and ensure that they didn't collapse because of genetic instabilities. So, either SEELE didn't stabilize this guy and he was going to day in a matter of days or weeks or they were far better prepared than what he ever imagined. Still, what ever the case, he was in deep shit.

The fight had taken almost a half an hour and if it would continue like this, he was going to loose, which meant death. No sooner had John thought about that possibility that the creature managed to get passed his defenses and get a really good slash at him, severing his left arm from his shoulder. John screamed and used his powers to quickly move away from his enemy, there was no way he could keep up now.

"Give up, there is no way that you can stop me!" The creature proclaimed. "What can you do now? My next attack will most likely kill you and I shall consume your strength."

"I'm not that easy to kill." John replied panting. The wound was already sealed, he had dropped his sword and used his right hand to channel energy into the wound in such a pattern that it would close it. It was a bad fix, but it would prevent him from bleeding since that wound was too big to be fully cauterized by the energy blade's heat.

"Indeed, you've lasted far longer than I expected, yet it is only a matter of time." The creature said unconcerned, knowing that it could move fast enough to prevent him from picking his sword up from where he had dropped it. John knew it too. "What will you do? Glare at me?"

"I might, but I had something else in mind right now." John said, grinning at the creature. "I didn't want to use this on you, but it seems that I have no choice. It will be quite effective knowing you are a spawn of Adam."

"You think that YOU can harm me in the state you find yourself in?" The creature started laughing. "You'll have a hard time even striking me with anything, much less killing me." With that said it started to run around John. Said man realized that he was in the center of the large conference room and that thing was circling him like a shark.

He raised his remaining hand and in it a sphere of golden light appeared, he was channeling a large amount of energy and now his hand was glowing as if he was holding a small sun in it. The creature kept running, unconcerned by the display of power. SEELE had assured him that an energy based attack would never harm his armor, it would just redirected at his will, and he was going to use it to turn that man into ashes for his defiance of SEELE's will. That or he was going to miss and he'd get to see exactly what that man was trying.

Just then a giant fist exploded from the wall and knocked the creature right into the opposite wall and through it just as John was releasing the sphere of energy. John recognized the fist as the fist of Unit-01, but as good as the hit was, he realized that they were in a very bad situation. Asuka had burst in the room with about half of the squad of armored troops, as the creature was still sailing through the air.

Everything went into slow motion for John as his mind analyzed what was going on. He could see part of Unit-01, more exactly the chest as all of it went through several floors at a time because of its height and size. His attack was heading straight for it, it would hit straight in the core, the armor would not prevent his attack from releasing the charge of energy in the core of the Avatar. That was a very bad thing and there was no way he could stop this.

He had intended to attack the monster with something that would overcharge it, even if the attack was more or less redirected, it would overflow since it was raw energy instead of pure destructive power. If that entered the core, it could cause a cataclysmic reaction it. The good part was that it wouldn't be dangerous for the avatar itself, but it would screw up the whole base if not more and they were all going to die if that happened. As things were at the time being, there was no way to stop it from happening, in reality the whole thing would last less than a second, the only reason he was still there was the fact that he could think really fast, making it look like time was slowed down.

So, in other words, he was dead, or would be soon, he wasn't expecting things to turn up like this, it was just so wrong. Still, as he thought about it, he couldn't really complain, knowing that it would turn out like this sooner or later, with him on the death roll. All he could do now was reduce the amount of damage this would cause, knowing that he was almost at the end of his limits, that wouldn't be much. He smiled and called on all of his reserves, a maneuver that would ensure that he would have died even if he wasn't going to be incinerated by the blast that would follow.

A Dirac sea opened and swallowed Asuka and the troops in a split second, as soon as it had appeared it was gone, then John saw the most bright white light he could ever imagine. He was engulfed in it, but he didn't feel any pain, he could still feel his body disintegrating.

'I wonder how Unit-01 got here anyway? Shinji, Asuka, Sarah, I'm sorry I couldn't do more than this, I guess I won't have to be sorry for what I had planned anyway. At least maybe I'll get a chance to see her again…'

With that last thought, John ceased to be, destroyed by the power he had unleashed unwillingly.

--

Asuka and the other troops were shocked when they found themselves being thrown out recklessly in the throne room that was dedicated to John's avatar, just as the whole place seemed to shake as if an earthquake was taking place. Still, that shouldn't be possible in this place, something was very wrong, that much Asuka could tell, but what. He got on her feet from her fall and she heard a shocked gasp from one of the soldiers. She turned to look at him and saw him staring at the avatar, she turned towards it and found herself shocked as well.

Blood was dripping from all of the armor joints and the chest armor was seemingly blasted from inside, that was not all of it though, the core was also destroyed as if something exploded from within, blood was pouring out of the gaping wound like a crimson stream. The avatar had its head and shoulders slumped forward and blood was flowing from its eye sockets, it was obviously dead.

Asuka looked at herself and only now did she realize that she was covered in the avatar's blood herself and so were all of the soldiers. They arrived through the avatar's core, John generated the sea and sent them here for some reason, but what the hell was going on. They were going to act as reinforcements for the man when one of the soldiers told them that he was in trouble. Unit-01 had dropped out of a Dirac sea only minutes earlier, that had snapped Shinji out of his paralysis and got him moving, saying that he promised to take care of them. He tore his way through walls and floors with ease, collapsing whole sections of the underground complex and heading towards the man, they flew through the empty space left behind before taking a turn and going through the normal routes to enter the conference room through the shattered door and some of the holes in its walls.

Just as they entered, John had released some sort of attack, it was heading for Shinji at high speed and before she could even realize what was going on, they ended up here. Something was wrong, very wrong, if the avatar was dead, that could mean that John was dead as well, which meant that Shinji was in trouble. She had to find out what happened, so she moved, ignoring the shocked soldiers, some of which still staring at the dead avatar. She headed to the command room of this place, knowing that she could get some answers there.

--

Meanwhile Sarah awoke with a scream, feeling an unexpected pain in her heart, then power the likes she never felt before. She screamed as the absurd amounts of power flowed through her, her eyes light with pure golden light and her whole body glowed, shinning its light with the intensity of a sun and releasing a nova of raw energy throughout Sanctuary. She couldn't feel anything else except the power that was coursing through her, her senses were overloaded by it. Then after what could have been an eternity for her, it stopped and she fell on her bed from nearly touching the ceiling.

Sarah got to her feet shakily and as realization dawned on her, she started crying, knowing what had happened. Only one thing could have charged her with so much power, John had died, all of his power, including that which he couldn't use anymore was hers now. A power that wasn't much use, since she wasn't a warrior by nature and even if she was, she couldn't leave Sanctuary anyway.

'How? How did it happen? How can I handle this situation? I'm now the leader of Sanctuary, unless John left something else in his will. How can I handle such powers?' Sarah asked herself, scared and confused. Of all the things she was expecting, she didn't expect John to die, not like that, not today…

The power she now had was incredible, she could feel all of Sanctuary, all the souls in it, she could feel connections between certain souls. It was incredible and overwhelming for her, the sensation was like nothing she could describe. That was when she realized that she could feel a soul that shouldn't have been there, Asuka was in their Sanctuary, through her she could feel that Shinji was still alive as well, the connection between them was as strong as ever. She decided to contact her.

'Asuka, how did you get here?' Sarah asked.

'Sarah? How did you contact me so easily?' Asuka asked in surprise, Sarah could tell that she had stopped moving.

'John… John died Asuka… I have all of his powers now.' Sarah replied, finding it hard to push the thoughts forward without overwhelming the girl with her sorrow. Though she quickly realized that she was receiving the beginnings of panic from Asuka. 'Don't worry, I can tell that Shinji is more or less alright, despite what ever happened.'

'Thank God… I thought for a second that he might have died too…' Asuka replied. 'I'm sorry Sarah, you're probably not in the mood for this…'

'It's alright Asuka, we have to find out what happened, any ideas?'

'Non, all I know is that one moment I was heading towards John with reinforcements while Shinji was barging in with Unit-01, the next I was bursting out from the core of John's avatar. The thing is dead, and the corpse is bleeding a lot. So I was heading towards the Command room to see if I can get any answers.' Asuka replied.

'That's a good idea. Stay there, I'm joining you.' Sarah sent.

Before Asuka could question her about what she meant, she focused and called on her new powers, then she moved herself through time and space by breaking herself apart and reforming near Asuka. When she opened her eyes she saw Asuka staring at her, though Asuka was not a pretty sight herself, her armor was completely covered in blood, luckily she had her helm on, otherwise her hair and face would have had the same problem. Still, the sight was not pretty.

"I'll explain later, first let's find out what the hell is going on." Asuka replied.

--

When they entered the room, it was deadly silent, on the screen was displayed what looked like a close up from the smoke covered mouth of an active volcano. Asuka was going to ask what the hell they were doing, she even opened her mouth, but she quickly closed it when she read in the upper left corner at what she was looking at: Berlin, Germany, feed from temporary relay, Combat Transport no. 342.

Sarah was equally shocked, it just couldn't be possible, that was ALL of Berlin. Something destroyed it all, not only that, but it dug a hole deep in the Earth's core. The amount of volcanic ash coming from that kind of hole in the Earth could very well cause an ice age, because it would definitely cover all of the Earth, preventing the sun from shinning on its surface for many years to come. Something very wrong took place there, it was a screw up bigger than anything she could have ever imagined.

"W… what happened there?" Asuka asked in complete shock. All of Berlin had been whipped out, every living creature had been destroyed, including her father. She had hopped that after all this was over she would be able to understand the man better and maybe even patch some things out so that they could both get over all that in a better way.

One of the technicians there placed his hands on his control station and issued a command. The screen went blank for a few moments, then a recording began to play.

"Holly shit!" someone swore as several things falling and breaking were heard.

"Get this thing moving! Get the sensors one, what the fuck is going one?" Another voice, a man, panic obvious in his voice.

The screen than revealed a wall of bright light, the camera began to move and then zoom out, they could now see a giant cross made of bright light blasting from where Berlin used to be. The thing was enormous, it could probably be seen on the whole hemisphere, not to mention from outer space. It was accompanied by a roar full of pain and anger, it was Unit-01 and Asuka never heard a roar like that even when it used to go berserk.

This roar was expressing untold agony and pain, the likes no being should ever feel, it seemed to come from the base of the explosion, it was probably the very center of the blast of unknown power. That was the power that Shinji possessed and so did she, Asuka was never more aware of the power that was in her hands, or more frightened for that matter. What could have happened to cause something like this, what could have forced Shinji to do something so destructive?

"Well, it seems that some of Adam's power was released." Sarah said. "Good thing that this blast was considerably smaller than the one that destroyed Antarctica, otherwise all of Europe and quite a bit of the Asian continent would have been wiped out."

"Just how powerful are we? If we had our full powers I mean?" Asuka asked, staring at the screen as the image returned to the burning inferno.

"You and Shinji have enough power to destroy the planet Asuka." Sarah replied. "If you were able to control it all that is. Second impact was an accidental release of power, not something intentional or controlled, therefore, it didn't have all of Adam's fury."

"Then, this was just a freak accident?"

"Most likely." Sarah replied. "Something must have happened down there that taped in Shinji's unused reserves of power. That would release a lot of energy in destructive form, without causing real harm to his body, but I imagine that it hurts like hell for him. This was definitely nothing I expected to happen."

"This is so wrong… so many people killed…" Asuka said. "We have to get Shinji out of there right now, we have to find him Sarah, other wise he might think he's at fault for this disaster. Knowing him, that won't end well!"

"We don't even know where he is Asuka, though I know that you can find him, we can't just jump in there… John's dead… I'm not ready to handle this… I can barely keep my powers in check." Sarah replied as she held a hand at her temple. "I… can't do this… I'm sorry…" She turned to the technicians. "Tell them to come back. Until further orders, we're retreating and staying low."

Several "Yes Ma'am!" were heard throughout the room and the feed from the outside world was cut as the ship was retreating through a Dirac sea back to Sanctuary. Sarah had no idea how to handle a situation like that, she knew enough to easily handle Sanctuary's internal affairs, but there was no way that she could handle a military operation of any kind. She knew that these people would look at her for answers, but she had non right now and she had to get things in order before she could do more about the outside world.

"You're going to abandon Shinji out there!?" Asuka yelled as loud as she could. The fact that she was slightly desperate made her yell reverberate with some of her powers, letting everyone know that she wasn't going to accept that decision. "I'm not going to leave him out there like that!"

"Asuka, there's nothing I can do about all this, it's too much for me and Misato doesn't have enough knowledge about our methods to be more than a second in command, she simply can't handle a full scale operation like this one!" Sarah replied, angry that she had to deal with this, angry at herself as well that she couldn't really do anything. "All I can do is let you go out there with you avatar, but that's it, you'd be all by yourself with no support and no way to communicate with us, adding to that, we won't know what's happening with you or with Shinji for that matter. We won't be able to help you in any way and unless you know how to open a Dirac sea by yourself, you'll have no means of coming back to us."

"I'll figure something out!" Asuka replied angrily. "I'm not going to let him out there by himself, no matter what happened, I'm going out there and there's no way anyone's stopping me." Asuka's eyes glowed bright red with those last words, making Sarah wonder if she could have stopped the girl even if she really knew how to use her powers in an offensive way.

With that said, Asuka stormed out heading towards Unit-02, no one was stupid enough to stand in her path. Sarah dropped on her knees, wondering how could it go so wrong in just so little time. No matter what John had planned, it couldn't have turned out this badly, she wondered about what could have happened…

--

He felt pain, Earth shattering pain, something like he never felt before in his whole life, though he felt a lot of pain before, this topped it all of. It was too much for him. He felt it from his very core, spreading throughout his body like fire, burning all of his nerves with unimaginable fury. He struggled against it, he lashed out, with it though came an odd sense of power that burned from him, coursing and surging around him. He was barely aware, the fact that he knew that was strange to him, especially when the pain made it hard to think, he wasn't even sure who he was through it.

Still, he knew that he had to get away from it, to make it stop, to be able to be free again, yet it wouldn't stop, no matter what he did. So he began to move, or at least that's what he wanted, yet he couldn't be sure if it was happening or not. He knew only when trough all of the pain he was able to feel only the faintest sensation of air moving on the surface of whatever it was his skin, if he had skin, he really couldn't tell.

--

The people that lived around Berlin far enough to escape the deadly blast that took place earlier were still staring at the horrifying spectacle. That was when a loud roar came from the smoke filled inferno and from it something came out flying at great speeds. It was about 30 or 40 meters above the ground and it was moving quickly.

No one knew what it was, but everyone witnessed the shape of what was once Unit-01 flying out of the smoke looking more like some sort of monster than it ever did before. Six enormous pairs of wings made of orange light came from its back and energy was coursing all over its body. Its eyes were glowing bright blue and the energy around it seemed to create a sort of halo of blue fire all around its body.

It was mainly flying east, but it wasn't really going in a straight line, it didn't seem to be able to go in a straight line for unknown reasons to those watching the creature. Most thought that it was one of those angels NERV was 

supposed to fight, but no one really knew what they were looking at. Just that it came from that disaster, and that it was most likely the source of the destruction that claimed millions of lives in and around Berlin.

The bystanders watched in mute fascination as several jet fighters headed towards the confused behemoth , it was a squad of five fighters, sent to investigate what happened and destroy any hostiles that may be in the area. The monster that was roaring in the sky was most likely hostile, the pilots wanted something to blame for the destruction and the creature was a good target. Not to mention that the reports they had on the angels, incomplete as they were, gave enough info to consider that thing as one. So far, there was only one way to deal with angels.

The pilots circled the beast once from afar, the maneuver wasn't all that easy because of the low altitude and the fact that the monster was moving quite quickly and it wasn't keeping a straight course. They had to wait for orders, and it didn't take long for them to be ordered to bring that thing down by any means necessary. They knew that other planes were being prepared in case they couldn't handle the threat by themselves. They had no idea about the AT field, or the fact that conventional weapons were useless against this enemy, so they armed their missiles and waited for a lock on the target.

--

As soon as he had started moving he had felt others, he had felt fear and confusion from them, those feelings were making the pain more bearable through the fact that they imposed on it by a bit. That's why he tried to stay as close to those feelings as possible, trying to stop the pain, trying to think. That was when he felt something else, a different kind of feeling, one that was making the pain worse, it had five sources that were around him, in a circle he managed to think.

So he willed himself to move straight up as fast as he could, to get away from the pain. What ever those things were, they couldn't keep up apparently and they were left behind, so he decided to leave, somewhere where there were no others, were there was no one to either stop or feed his pain. At least then, he would only have that and he could try to fight it, he had to fight it, that much he knew, but nothing else aside from that.

--

The pilots were shocked that before their missiles could even launch, the beast took of straight up with astounding speed. The maneuver seemed physically impossible, that thing had stopped all movement in all directions at an instant and then only moved in straight line up. Knowing that it was moving at about mach 1.5, it should have been impossible, no matter what, yet that object defied normality.

It moved so fast that there was nothing they could do, it disappeared of their radars in minutes, most likely going into orbit. What ever it had been, at least it had left. That was when another contact appeared on the radar, right in the middle of the smoke. From it came out a red four eyed behemoth, flying with the help of large metallic wings, this one didn't even seem to have a mouth, it was looking around curiously almost. They headed towards it as it landed at about 40 kilometers from the crater. Until they received the orders to engage, they could only circle it and observe its actions, but the red behemoth didn't seem to have any intentions to start a fight.

They soon received a transmission over the radio, the leader of the squad replied, wondering who the hell knew their frequency.

(This is Asuka Langley Sohryu, The Second Child, pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, don't shoot, I'm not here to fight.)

"What?!" The pilot asked incredulously. The whole world heard about the three heroic children that fought the angels and piloted the Evangelions, but it was declared that they died while stopping Third Impact. Yet, the four eyed red behemoth seemed proof enough that she was alive, either that or someone else was piloting it and that person was trying to take the dead girl's place, the pilot didn't know what to think.

(Listen, I don't have time for these games. I know I'm supposed to be dead, but let's say that the people that declared me dead didn't quite manage to get the job done. The girl replied over the radio. If you don't believe me, let's head out to the airport and I can talk with some of the people in charge there.)

She took of towards the airport and the planes escorted her there. It didn't take long for her to land on an air strip and wait for someone to come out and greet her. Asuka made her avatar kneel and she came out, knowing full well that SEELE couldn't do anything in the area, at least not until things settled down. Before she left she was smart enough to download all the data John had on their bases, so she knew that there were no more bases in the vicinity and that she was safe for now. Normal soldiers had no power over her, plus, the fact that they weren't SEELE fanatics ensured that they didn't know any sort of truth and they weren't even thoroughly brainwashed by them.

"My God, it really is her!" A man said as he approached the avatar in a jeep, he had an escort of two more soldiers and the driver himself was well armed. Asuka was no expert in military ranks, but if what she had learned from Misato was correct, she was dealing with a general.

"As I said, I'm not dead and as much as the people that said that I was dead want me as such, I have no intention of dying any time soon." She replied. "That… monstrous disaster in Berlin is also their fault."

"Wait, are you saying that the UN is to blame for the complete destruction of our capital? What about that thing that came out?" The general asked in shock. "I find this all pretty hard to believe miss Sohryu."

"Listen to me, I don't give a damn if you believe me or not. Here are the facts. The UN is corrupt, they're being manipulated by a group of four men that want to cause the Fourth Impact and were the cause of the Second and Third. They want me and the Third Child dead! They attacked the main branch of NERV in Tokyo-3 by convincing the JSSDF that NERV wanted to cause Third Impact! They destroyed Tokyo-2 in an attempt to silence all witnesses and covered it up with the help of Third Impact." Asuka said angrily, but didn't give the general a chance to comment as she kept going. "The same people that wanted Third Impact were doing a lot of experiments in the NERV base in Berlin, we tried to stop them, me, the Third Child and a man named John that got us out after Third Impact."

"That man DIED there trying to stop those people and I barely got out alive. Shinji was there too, in Unit-01, he was in the middle of that explosion when it happened, so when he came out, he'd probably feel a hell of a pain and he was more than likely confused too. I'm looking for him and I know that you people know where he went. I want answers now! If I don't get them, I'm willing to pry them from your head. Is that clear?"

"The thing that came out of the explosion went straight up, by the looks of things, I'd say that it's in outer space by now." The general replied, even though he didn't understand why he was giving these answers so easily.

"Shit, there's no way to get him now, I have to wait until he comes close enough to Earth…" Asuka replied more to herself. She could still feel Shinji, their powers made their connection a lot deeper than what would normally happen. As a result, they could normally find one another with ease, but in this case, he was too far and the amount of pain he was feeling prevented him from acknowledging her and even realizing where he was for that matter. This was not good at all since she couldn't just go out in space and attempt to look for him.

"I really don't know what to say… this doesn't make much sense…" The man said, feeling more confused than he ever felt in his life before.

"This is all YOUR guys fault!" Asuka replied angrily. "If you morons didn't try to shoot missiles at him, he might have stayed on Earth at least and I could have found him! Do you idiots always shoot first and ask questions later?"

"How…"

"How did I know?" Asuka asked, reading his surface thoughts unwillingly, she was too angry to keep her powers in check, she was barely able to keep her wings retracted. "It doesn't matter, just be happy that I don't stomp your little airport to pieces with my Avatar!"

"Listen, I really have no idea what's going on here, we didn't really know what else to do!" The general replied. "All I know is that not even an hour ago, Berlin went from being the capital of our country to being a big hole in the ground that keeps spiting out volcanic ash! After that, some big monster comes flying out, roaring like a demon from hell! We thought it was one of those angels or something and that it was the source of our troubles, but it doesn't attack and it runs of at the first sign of aggression from us. Then you come out of nowhere and tell me that the UN is led by a bunch of men that want to cause an Impact and that they're behind all that happened in Berlin while you're looking for the Third Child Shinji Ikari, who incidentally is piloting that thing that came out first."

"I suppose there's no way you'd believe that story…" Asuka replied with a sigh. "Do you know about the Human Instrumentality Committee? Or something along those lines?"

"Yes, they supposedly have a lot of power in the UN and they were the ones funding NERV." The general replied.

"Well, those people are the leaders of a secret organization known as SEELE." Asuka stated. "Instrumentality is basically the unification of all human souls in one entity under their command basically turning them into some sort of gods, that can be achieved through an Impact. Third Impact was meant to achieve just that, but it didn't go according to their plans due to several factors and Shinji was placed as their man made "god". He chose to give everyone a new life, that's why everyone was reborn after that day and some people turned out younger and so on. Does that make things a bit more clear?"

The general and the soldiers gasped, everyone remembered Shinji's face after Third Impact, no one knew who he was though, but all they knew was that he had done something for them, a favor that could never be repaid… Everyone gained something after Third Impact, some gained some youth, but everyone was reborn without any diseases or scars or mutilations. Everyone that had some sort of inability was reborn without it. They knew that was she said was true, because in reality, every man and woman on Earth knew that Shinji Ikari chose to give them all life again despite the fact that he could have been a god-like being, it was just that the memories were blocked for some reason and until you heard the story from someone else, you couldn't remember.

Asuka smiled when she saw their reactions, maybe if she were to spread the story, she would be able to turn the world against SEELE…

To be continued…

A/N2: Well, it seems that most people are more interested in the idea where idea that has potential to lead to more fics. If things keep going like that, it will win without even having any real competition from the other one. Not that I care, I wouldn't have had this poll if I was able to decide on my own. Still, a few more votes would be appreciated.

Relating strictly to the chapter, I have to mention that this part was planned out before even the first chapter was out or even half finished, it's not the only one. There are parts where I go by the flow so to speak, but like I like to say, I don't simply ride my creativity, I control it when the need arises. WAFF addicts, don't worry, this won't blow over to hell completely like the original series did. Meaning that I won't keep going worse and worse. I'm adding this warning because I know some people might not handle well extremely depressive content.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this and I'll get the next chapter out as soon as i can find the time. After all, I try to ensure that these things are decently written.


	9. Chapter 9

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 9: Difficult situations

A/N: Well, I finally managed to get this done, despite several disruptions that made writing more difficult than it should be (the greatest of which being this DAMN HEAT!). Anyway, leaving that aside, here's chapter 9, more details regarding my work will show up down bellow...

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

It had been a long day for Asuka, and by the look of things, it was going to get that much longer. It was no surprise really, whenever things went bad in her life, it seemed that they had the tendency to blow up all the way to hell, apparently, that didn't change with the passing of time. She supposed that some things changed and some stayed the same, the same old story.

Currently, she was waiting to see what was going on and what the general was going to do. He had left and went to give out some phone calls to who knew how many people. He would probably contact the Minister of Defense and he would contact other people and so on until all of the German government would be informed and they would try to take some action of some sort. Presuming of course that there was much left of the German government after the destruction of Berlin, it was after all the capital. So, she suspected that if most of the people involved were dead, then some sort of martial law would be instated until some sense could be made of this rapidly degenerating situation.

As for her, she couldn't really do much, she couldn't just fly out in space after Shinji, she could still feel his confused and pained mind, but the connection was so muddled and pained on his side that there was no way to properly follow him out there. So, she had to wait and see what these people would decide to do about her and the new problems she brought out. Hopefully, they would try and go public with the whole matter, pretty much forcing SEELE into hiding in their damn bases, unless they tried to take over the whole world, which even they couldn't hold. If they tried, it would be a relatively easy, even though lengthy task for her to go around the world and kill of their spread forces of clones and Evas (or more like pseudo-angels since these things were working without any dummy plug or soul, like the angels they fought seemingly so long ago).

She waited for a couple of hours, simply sitting on the shoulder of her avatar, she didn't want to alarm these people, especially since they didn't yet know what to expect from her. She mused about their reactions when they would discover her powers sooner or later. She would have to explain about those sooner or later as well, it was better if she explained herself than let things spiral out of control and allow many theories to rise, which would allow SEELE to bend the truth to their will. She was going to reveal those bastards to the world, especially since the remaining four of the initial council of five had no more positions in the official political world, due to the fact that they were suddenly looking as if they were 20 and had no more implants. No matter how weird Third Impact had been, it would be difficult to explain why that happened and to prove to great deal of people that they were who they claimed to be.

--

The SEELE council had gathered, at first they were 12, after John had made his first move to secure Gendo Ikari, they remained 11, after the disaster in Berlin, they were now 9, two more had died, one due to his position in the German government and the other due to the fact that he was a member of the UN and was there to presumably inspect the NERV branch. They knew that the damned Founder of Sanctuary would move against that place, due to the fact that they caught the surface thoughts of the Second Child's father, it was a gamble, but they suspected that she was in the area, fact which would mean that John as he named himself would be planning something in the area.

It wasn't exactly hard to get what he would try to do there of all places, so they prepared their own plan to take care of him once and for all and get their hands on the prize that kept evading them for so long. They knew that the man wouldn't bring avatars in such a confined space, so it was safe for them to use quite a bit of their resources to engineer a creature that was beyond the abilities of that man. The only threat to it was the Lance of Longinus and it was unlikely that it would be there without Unit-01.

The plan seemed to work, they were winning, at least that's what they thought going by the reports from the creature they created. Then, all of Berlin was destroyed in a blast that had the magnitude of a small Impact, seeing as most of the blast went upward and destroyed several satellites, you could say that it was an Impact. So, something went brilliantly wrong when Unit-01 came on the battlefield.

Due to the destruction, they had no surveillance in the area around Berlin and the normal channels were unavailable due to the death of almost all of the German government, all in all, Germany was completely out of their grasp for some time and it would remain that way until they could see exactly what losses they had and determine what the hell happened. As a result, the conference room was more or less in chaos.

"Silence!" boomed Keel, using his powers as well to impose his will over the other members. It was really the first time in many years that all of the council dropped whatever they were doing and gathered in person in one location as fast as they could. Only three hours had passed since the incident and with the help of private jets everyone was gathered. "I know things got out of hand, but we will not solve anything if we run around in panic with no self control!"

"01 is right." SEELE 03 said. "We must calm down, or else we have already lost this war."

"Then maybe you would like to explain exactly what happened in Berlin, we lost everything there! Not to mention that two more members died! Number 7 and number 10 were killed there!" 08 yelled. "How can you expect us to be calm?! Keel, you were the one that planned that operation and precious resources were wasted. All for NOTHING!"

"Blaming one another will solve nothing!" 11 spoke. "We should first determine WHAT went wrong and THEN decide what to do."

"Well, going by the size and nature of the blast, I'd say that we were dealing with an overloaded core, much like what happened during Second Impact." SEELE 02 said. "Knowing that it was reported that Eva Unit-01 had joined the battle, we can assume that it was its core that was overloaded. As for why that happened, I have an explanation there as well. Our special agent reported that the Founder, or John as he calls himself, though severely injured and lacking an arm was preparing an assault which contained an enormous quantity of energy. If for some reason that attack struck Unit-01 in the chest, it would overload the core. Knowing that the Third Child has Adam's powers, even though in a latent form, it is safe to assume that it would cause an incident of that magnitude, if not worse. That is the result of my analysis on the incident so far."

"Thank you 2, now, who else has any other observations on the matter?" Keel asked, hoping that they could keep things in order.

"I would like to give a short report on the subject of the Third Child and the power he holds. I'm sure that the rest of you felt it as well, but something came and left from that explosion, something very powerful, something that was maybe even more powerful than our former master." SEELE 4 spoke, partly frightened. "I could feel its roar of anger and pain. I believe that the power of Adam now flows freely in the Third Child, but I don't think that he has recovered after the incident."

"There would be another indicator of that fact actually." 9 said. "Some of the clones are experiencing great pains and so are quite a few of our Evangelions. Seeing as they are made from Adam's DNA, they are attuned to his powers, right now he's most likely broadcasting his pain. I suggest that we terminate these particular clones and Evas, lest we want him to take control of them."

"There's no guarantee that the brat won't take control over all of our forces as soon as he gets a hold of himself!" SEELE 08 said. "I knew that preparing these many creatures based on that DNA was a mistake."

"We didn't have any other options, Lilith's DNA was not stable and no one ever expected Adam to transfer his powers to someone else during Third Impact, we never even imagined that Third Impact could fail." 3 said. "As it is, we can't do much about the situation. We have no way of knowing what that "John" is planning to do presuming that he survived the whole incident. I suggest that we regroup our forces to our key bases and attempt to mobilize our agents to see what's going on as soon as the situation on the planet calms down enough to allow such actions."

"Agreed." Keel replied. "We can't really act until we know what's going on, plus we have to rearrange our forces and prepare our defensive. That man will surely strike as soon as he is capable and there even is the possibility of other governments attempting to get rid of our basses due to the effects of that explosion. They will be wary of anything that has to do with NERV."

The council continued to plan the details of their move, not knowing that soon, they would have to act because of a problem far different from anything they were expecting to happen.

--

"Miss Sohryu, could you come here please?" A soldier said as he approached her avatar. Asuka knew he wanted to talk to her from the moment he stepped on the airfield, she could feel his surface thoughts. He was going to say that she was free to leave and that they really didn't know what to do about her given the situation.

"No need, I already got the message, don't ask how." She said then she stood there thinking for a bit. "Hey listen, I need a few tools and a good connection to the web, think I can get them here?"

"A… sure, technically as an Evangelion pilot, you have the rank of a Captain in the military so, you're my superior ma'am." The private said, Asuka didn't question him any further, apparently her rank in the German army was still active and she had equal rank in the Japanese army due to the fact that she was expected to return to Germany after the angel wars, moment when her rank in the Japanese army would have been canceled.

"Good, then let's get moving, I already have a list of what I need, don't worry, I don't intend to hack your data base or anything of the sort." Asuka replied casually. "You guys scratch my back and I might help you with a few things in solving this mayhem, at least that's what I hope."

"Very well ma'am." The soldier replied looking over the list. The thought of asking for permission from his superiors never even crossed through his head, because it was being kept at bay by Asuka's powers. She didn't really want to use people like that, but she didn't have the time to wait. She had to act while SEELE was still dazed after this disaster, that way the chaos would begin long before any of them could do anything.

After a couple of hours she was busy working on her old neural transmitters, forming a strange network between them and connecting them to some of the circuits that were embedded in the avatar's armor. Her plan was simple and impossible to stop or even detect by normal people. Hopefully, the four SEELE members that had powers were now in their secret bases, hiding away from a possible disaster. The soldier that helped her gather the tools was watching curiously as she worked, not knowing what to make of the whole technical mess she was working on. As for Asuka, she was simply hoping that her improvised work would hold and that she'd be able to achieve her goals.

It didn't take long before she was standing on the head of her kneeling avatar, preparing for the main event. The soldier was shocked when the avatar's four eyes opened and glowed red as it rose to its feet with its master on its head. Asuka and the avatar spread their arms and wings at the same time and an AT field formed, keeping anyone who would bother her away. The military didn't have anything that could even scratch her field, much less actually move her. Not that they had any reasons to act, she wasn't acting in an aggressive manner after all, but now her wings were visible and anyone who could see her could know that she wasn't perfectly human anymore.

She spread her thoughts through the internet, searching, making connections, and then connecting to the remaining MAGI units across the globe. That was when her powers kicked in and she connected directly to the organic cores of the computers, overriding them, without the operators even knowing that anything was going wrong. Now, it was time to do something really drastic, she was soon looking in all of the files regarding NERV, the Evas and most of all SEELE and their agenda up until Third Impact and what ever she could get of what followed and what would follow.

It didn't take her long to stretch her mind through the data and gather it all in several points, now, the fun would really begin. With a simple thought, all of the data was released all over the world, not only to governments and officials that weren't controlled by SEELE, but also to news agencies and even private homes, over the internet to all sorts of people that could spread the information even more. By the time even a second had passed the information was spread far and wide enough that every person on the planet could know who were the SEELE members and what their goals were. This was just the beginning…

--

The SEELE council was just wrapping up their meeting when something went wrong. Suddenly, SEELE 08 touched a button and caused a holographic projection to form in the center of the room. What was revealed, left all of the council members speechless.

"People of the world, SEELE have been a parasite for our planet for too long, they not only toyed with the resources of this planet, but with our very lives, the lives of every man, woman and child, regardless of their age or nationality. They are inhuman monsters, with human faces that deserve death for all that they did. I brought forth proof that they were behind both Second and Third Impact, all with the purpose of turning themselves into man made gods, at the price of all of our lives! They used us pilots and when they didn't need us anymore, they tried to kill us! Do not think that they care about anyone, the orders they gave regarding NERV Japan proves that they would stop at nothing to achieve their goals! In their thirst for powers, they even toyed with powers that should have been left untouched and that led to the now well known destruction of Berlin…"

All this and more was being said by their very target Asuka Langley Sohryu, live before their very eyes. She made no attempt to hide what she had become and even explained why things were as they were, while blaming SEELE of course.

"Where is this being broadcasted?!" Keel boomed.

"Everywhere! It's all over the world!" 8 replied. "She has the Magi! She has other computer systems under her control through them, there's no way to stop her. Only the fact that your powers secure our bases has prevented her from hacking in our bases!"

"I'm getting alarming reports here!" SEELE 4 said. "Except for the bases that are unofficial and have clones, all the others are rebelling and cutting their connections to us. No man alive on this planet can understand our goals and accept them. That was the reason why very few knew of Adam's true goal during the first war on the Old Earth. We needed followers at that time."

"Yes, but here we don't need them." Keel said. "We have our armies and we don't really need any humans. Locate the girl and send a detachment of drones to deal with her if she's alone. I doubt that she'll be able to handle 100 of those beasts alone. Even if she could, we have to stop her before she does even more damage. Now the whole world will be after us and we can't forget about those damn Sanctuary warriors."

"John was cunning to have her strike like this…" 3 said. "She's the most charismatic of the group, she's rather well known and to top it off she's German so she would be just as affected of the incident in Berlin, therefore making her even more popular and credible. The fact that she has all the data from our Magi to back her up seals the deal and now we can't touch her through political means."

"Now we can't even show our faces in public!" SEELE 08 said. "The rest of us have to hide seeing that we don't have any powers to defend ourselves from the military or any loyal men left!"

"True, now that SEELE is public, you have no more influence and therefore no more use for us." SEELE 02 said. "So, I suppose it's time to get rid of you." With a flick of his hand, the throats of the remaining SEELE members except the primary four were slit by unseen forces. They died before they even knew what happened to them. "Now, I suppose it's time to get some countermeasures ready. No matter what we do, this WILL blow up in our faces, we only have to make sure that the blast doesn't kill us and that it kills our enemies instead…"

--

Things in Sanctuary were strained to say the least, the news about John spread like wildfire and those that lived there for so long entered a dark period of mourning. The air itself seemed dark and gloomy to those that hardly knew the man, but there in Sanctuary were families that knew him for several generations. He was an example to all, he seemed invincible, a force that could have defended Sanctuary from even the darkest of threats. Yet now he was dead, defeated because of an unexpected turn about in the battle, defeated by his own attack, all because he hit the wrong target in the wrong place.

All in all, it seemed extremely strange that John died in what seemed to be a freak accident. Up until now he had always seemed to be in control and only rarely was he taken by surprise when it came to battles and dangers. Some were afraid, nothing like this was expected in Sanctuary, the man had lead Sanctuary for longer than anyone in it lived and it was expected that he would continue to do so for many long generations.

Yet, all in all, he expected this or something like this to happen since he had a will prepared, will which ensured that Sarah would take his place, but not by herself, she had a 2 years time to appoint two more leaders, forming a triumvirate of sorts which would handle the complexities of Sanctuary. The triumvirs would have a semi-specific role each, one would handle the internal affairs of Sanctuary and any political matters if they came in contact with other states, the second would handle the military issues of Sanctuary external or internal, ranging from internal security to war outside Sanctuary with whoever or whatever would threaten them. The third triumvir would be a mix of both, keeping the other two in check and acting as a second set of eyes for both of their actions, ensuring that they didn't screw up, his or hers main concern being the welfare of the people.

For now though Sarah was more concerned with her mourning and planning a funeral service for John, not that there were any remains to take care of. In Sanctuary, they didn't bury people, it wasn't practical with the theoretically limited space they had there, so the bodies were released within the Dirac sea in special coffins that would ensure that the remains were disintegrated in time, leaving no trace of the person that died. Now the service was more for those that mourned the man than anything else, since he wasn't of a specific religion, all he said was that a "god" existed, a supreme creator of all, but farther than that it was all open for everyone's beliefs and wants.

Still, there were people in the Geo-front that weren't really concerned with all this, people that even though they knew the man a bit and respected him, were more worried with those which were still alive than with those which were dead. Misato Katsuragi was one of those people, since she was more worried about her missing wards than anything else happening out there. So she wanted to know what the hell happened, since no one seemed to know. So she went right to the source, to Sarah herself.

Sarah was at her home, she didn't really feel like doing anything right now, she was confused and her powers were giving her a headache, she was having difficulties in handling the absurd amount of power surging through her now, so she was wondering if she would ever be able to fully control it. She had so much to deal with and she had no idea what she could do, not even a full day had passed since the incident and the news about the incident had already spread all over the nine spheres. That was when she felt a certain worried mind approaching her home, she sighed knowing that without using force she would be unable to get rid of Misato. At least these new powers gave her some sort of forward warning even in case of things like this.

Misato was just about to knock when the door opened to reveal a disheveled Sarah, the woman had had better days and this was clearly not one of them. Misato didn't really know what the connection was between her and John, but she could care less right now. What did confuse her was the sensation she felt from the woman, as if she was radiating energy of something.

"Come in." Sarah said and got out of the way, leading Misato to her living room. It was small and cozy, it had a small couch on which the woman could probably lounge around when at home and two fluffy armchairs more for her guests than anything else by the look of it since they seemed unused.

"Want some tea or anything to drink before we get to it?" Sarah asked.

"You know why I'm here?" Misato asked, slightly surprised.

"Even if your surface thoughts weren't practically broadcasting it to me, it would have been slightly obvious with John dying and all." Sarah said. "You've come to see me about Asuka and Shinji… Before that though I'll ask you again, do you want anything to drink?"

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself." Sarah said going to the kitchen. She could tell that Misato was in her military mode right now and she wasn't going to drink anything because she was too concerned. Though she needed a drink, not that it could do much to her in her current state of affairs.

She returned to the living room carrying what seemed to be three large bottles of vodka, Misato couldn't tell because of the unusual brand, another one of those things that you couldn't find on Earth. She had only one glass, and it wasn't a shot glass either.

"Whoa there, I didn't peg for the heavy drinker type." Misato said, quite surprised since Sarah never drank once when she came to visit.

"I'm not, but seeing as I am now, I won't even get a slight buzz from this stuff, though it's supposedly hard enough to knock out a horse in one glass." Sarah said. "I only drink when things go to hell, like now for example."

"What happened?" Misato asked, concern for the two kids she thought as her own washing over Sarah. The woman filled herself a full glass and drank it in one gulp without any hesitation. If the smell from that stuff was any indication, it was damn strong, but Sarah didn't seem to notice it one bit.

"You can stop worrying about the kids, they're alive, even though I'm not so sure how well they are. Even so, considering what happened, SEELE should keep the hell away from Shinji, otherwise he might snap out at them full berserker style." Sarah replied while pouring another glass. "Asuka went back after him… so I have no idea exactly how things stand."

"That doesn't explain much." Misato said feeling annoyed because of the way the woman seemed to dance around the subject.

"You want to know what happened? Fine. They blew Berlin of the map, all of Berlin and some of the surrounding area is now one big crater in the earth, a volcanic crater my I add. That, was a result of a display of power from Shinji, let's be thankful that was all he did, if he had used his full power he could have blown the whole damn planet to pieces in a similar incident to what happened to Old Earth and then we would have been really screwed. John died in that blast, his last action was to transport Asuka and whatever soldiers he could reach back to Sanctuary where they would be safe. The reason the blast occurred was because John had accidentally hit the core of Unit-01 with an attack which was meant to overload a smaller target. Now, add an overload of energy to something that is supposed to produce infinite amounts of power connected to the soul of a boy that has enough power from a dead freak to wipe out several planets. The result is that everything goes to hell." Sarah said, throughout the tale she spoke slowly and calmly, but her voice had an undertone of anger.

Misato was left speechless, of all the things she had expected, this was not one of them. Her mind worked furiously around the mountain of questions she had and tried to see what was answered and what wasn't while trying to figure out something to say. She didn't get the chance though as Sarah emptied the first bottle and resumed speaking.

"Now, imagine that all of John's powers which he couldn't access were suddenly active again and passed down to me as well with the responsibility of taking care of Sanctuary seeing as I'm he's great-great-granddaughter. All the while, Shinji is lost in the blast area, I have no idea what state of mind he might be in, but one thing is sure, he's probably in a lot of pain. I ordered a withdrawal seeing as I'm not yet fit to handle the situation and you don't know enough to properly handle this. Asuka obviously blew up hearing that and left Sanctuary to find him, it wasn't as if anyone can stop her, I don't have enough control even if I severely outweigh her with my powers, she'd rip me to 

shreds. So right now, they're both out there, all I knew was that when Asuka left Shinji was still alive, but what happened to them I don't know."

"Shit." That was all that came to mind to Misato at that time, there was really no better way to sum it up.

"My thoughts exactly." Sarah replied.

"We have to send out some people to find them." Misato said. "We have to get them both back before SEELE tries something."

"This is not the time and I can't handle it right now, it's too much at once, you have to understand that." Sarah said. "If Asuka's with Shinji, you don't have anything to worry about, his powers will be surely awakened after this. There's no risk of him dying because of the overload, so I'd say that he can easily handle even all the crap that SEELE might throw at him. Those four together could stand a chance against him, but that's only because of their experience and that shouldn't be enough against so much raw power."

"You're just going to leave them there?!" Misato yelled getting on her feet.

"Don't make me angry! I can barely control these powers and if you get me angry I might splatter you on these wall without even wanting to! I suggest you leave and deal with it! I will not risk the safety of all of Sanctuary for this situation. Asuka knew what she was getting herself into." Sarah replied with a deadly cold voice. "I'll deal with all of this when I'm ready, otherwise ALL of us are screwed not just Asuka or Shinji."

With that said, Sarah had Misato leave, this was not the time for her, this was the time for mourning and getting a hang over the absurd powers she was suddenly cursed with.

--

Gendo Ikari was visiting Fuyutsuki once more, even though little time had passed since his flat out refusal on Yui's behalf, he made a lot of progress, he wasn't one to be defeated easily. He had heard the news like all the others and now because of a certain former Major, the news about what happened to Asuka and Shinji were spreading between the refugees, he just received them from Fuyutsuki, who got them from the source and they were just discussing the consequences of what they knew so far.

"Of all the things tat even I expected, this was not one of them…" Gendo said, gazing out of a window from his old friend's living room. "Then again, these are all things with which humanity in these days should never toy with."

"Yes, most likely you're right, though it took you quite some time to reach that conclusion." The old professor replied. "What do you make of all this?"

"Honestly? I have no idea, this is not my game anymore, but it seems to me that Sarah is too inexperienced to handle a situation like this." Gendo replied thoughtfully. "This situation has the potential for a disaster, if Sarah leaves those two by themselves out there for too long, she just might give SEELE the time needed to win."

"True, but it's not like anyone of us can do anything about this." Fuyutsuki replied. That was when the former commander of NERV smirked, it was the same smirk he had whenever he had a particularly good idea. "I take it that you have a good idea."

"Well, I wasn't the commander for so long because it was convenient you know." Gendo stated. "I think I know how I might be able to send out some reinforcements to my son and the Second Child. Though we'll need some 

help from both Sanctuary personnel and some of the refugees. Though, if this is to have any sort of efficiency, we have to get going now, I'll need you help."

"Why not? For old times sakes, though I really hope this idea of yours works."

The two of them left the house, with the purpose of helping two lost warrior children.

--

Toji Suzuhara wasn't a stupid person, despite what many may think about him, even Asuka understood that to some extent. Still, pretending to be stupid was his way of hiding and sometimes blending in, it was easier for him to keep the image of a dumb jock, there were less questions asked and there was less expected on his behalf. There were only two people who knew how he really was, one was his little sister and the other was Hikari Horaki, his girlfriend, or at least that's what he thought.

He was on a date with said girl when the news reached him, a few hours later, then news about Asuka and Shinji had reached him as well and he was angry. He was angry that these people were just abandoning the two of them out there against who knew what odds. John had explained that there was an ugly situation out there, that SEELE had quite a bit of military power. Toji wanted to help, so he joined the training program for the mechanized forces, which also required a decent amount of power, not physical power, but power over the AT field.

So he had learned ever since he was brought here, he didn't want to be helpless again as he was when those soldier attacked Tokyo-2, like he was during the attack on NERV, or how he was when the 13th took hold of his Evangelion. He could handle one of those machines quite well and it took only a month of basic training to be able to use one in battle, thought control made things so much easier. The only reason he wasn't ever sent out there was the fact that Sanctuary had a two year training policy before you were used as a soldier outside, not to mention that even now he was underage and he had to be at least 20 before they would allow him to go out. In the mean time he kept training and he wasn't the only one of the kid refugees that were training in the program.

Since it was voluntary anyone could get in, but that didn't mean that you would make the cut, they didn't allow anyone handle one of those war machines. Especially since each one was custom built for their pilot, to improve diversity and make the fighting force highly adaptable while also ensuring that every pilot was familiar with their own machine and could handle it with maximum efficiency. You could still pilot one of the others if push came to shove, so the program was highly adaptable.

Another one of the candidates was Kensuke, he was better at AT field usage, but Toji had a better feel of the machine. The reasons for which Kensuke had joined were different from what they would have been more than a year ago. He had seen first hand what the war could do, he had seen the horror that pervaded Tokyo-2 and he didn't think about the war like he used to. Now he wanted to help his friends, to repay the debt he felt he owned to Shinji and the other pilots for saving all of their sorry asses from the angels and later Third Impact.

The medical science of Sanctuary led to one very important change for Kensuke, they healed his eye problem, adjusting them with biological manipulation, that's what allowed him to join the program, since eyesight issues could be a serious problem on a battlefield where everyone moved at astounding speeds. They were supposed to be fast and strong, but especially fast since they could never match and Evangelion in raw brute strength. So eyesight was important and he was thankful that he could join at all.

The importance of their capacity to pilot those machines was null without being able to move out, but that was when Fuyutsuki came on the scene and called as many of the refugees associated with NERV and involved in the mechanized program as he could find to a meeting. Neither of the two thought twice when they heard it was about Shinji and Asuka.

--

Ritsuko Akagi was sitting on a bench in the rather large garden of the facility where she was staying. She had recovered somewhat after the mental breakdown she had, faster than it was expected actually, but she was being kept there in case she would have a relapse and to make sure that she was perfectly fine before sending her out once more. There were many questions and emotions swirling around her head, but she decided to just let everything go and enjoy it while it lasted. She felt somewhat at peace here, more than she ever did for as long as she could remember. The only thing she was wondering about was Gendo, what happened to him, what did he really feel for her, what did she really feel for him. These were the only thoughts that never left her mind.

That was when she saw him, coming towards her, he had shaved and his hair looked a bit untidy, slightly longer than he usually kept it. There were other subtle changes as well, in the way he walked, for example, changes that no one else would ever notice, but she did, because she knew him so well. All, those changes together told her that something had changed with the man, something big, she could tell by the larges change of them all, he had a sad smile directed at her and his eyes held warmth. She had never seen the man without his emotionless mask on, it was all so strange to her.

"Ritsuko… The main reason I'm here is because I want to apologize, for all that I did to you over the years and especially at the end." Gendo said as he reached her. "I was being stupid and selfish, I want to make it up to you somehow, one day…"

Ritsuko was left speechless for once, what could one say to something so unexpected. In all her years of blind hope and dreams, she never imagined that Gendo could change so much, what ever the reason was, she didn't care, she felt that she had a chance at happiness, even if it was only a little bit of it.

"I know that I don't deserve forgiveness, from you or anyone for that matter, but I still want to set things right between us." Gendo continued. "I think you know by now that what I did was all for my wife, but, the truth is I was deluding myself, believing that she might ever want to deal with me after what I did. Not to mention that, only now I was able to question the nature of my true feelings towards her. I learned the hard way that I was living a lie."

Gendo took a pause and looked over the garden. "It's funny, but if it wasn't for the son I had forsaken so long ago, I might have committed suicide instead of getting back on my feet and getting a firm grip on my feelings, my real feelings." He seemed thoughtful for a second then turned back to her. "Do you remember what I told you right before Third Impact?"Ritsuko silently nodded.

"I meant what I said then. That's why I want you to know that, even though I can't really make heads or tales of my feelings right now, I'm willing to help you along and try whatever you might want. I don't know where it might lead us, but who knows, maybe we'll both find happiness and I'll be able to get on with my life, instead of living in the past."

Tears shone in Ritsuko's eyes, she wasn't one for emotional displays, but, after so much torture and anguish, after all the suffering, she could not really deny her heart. Just like her love for the man would never die, not even after all that he did to her. She never thought that this moment would ever come, but it seemed that despite all that happened, it seemed that everyone did have a right to happiness. Gendo silently held her while she shed her tears, he didn't lie, he was truthful, he really didn't know where this could lead to, but he wanted to give it a chance, he wanted to let go for once in his life and live.

"What now?" Ritsuko asked.

"Now we have to wait for you to recover, but I'll visit as often as they allow it. Still, there's a meeting I have to attend to pretty soon." Gendo said, the woman laughed.

"What could you be doing here?"

"My son and the Second are out there with no support from Sanctuary, I intend to change that." He said. "I may have done a lot of stupid things in my past, but I intend t change, if I don't change at least a bit towards everyone, I won't be able to change at all for anyone."

"I'd never thought I'd hear that from you." She said, smiling for the first time in what felt like a very long time.

"Believe it or not, neither did I, but life has its ways at surprising all of us." Gendo replied. "I mean, would have you imagined that my messed up son could fall in love with the equally messed up girl that is the Second Child?"

"No, I honestly thought that they hated each other, or at least that she hated him, Shinji really seemed incapable of hate." Ritsuko said. "You should go, I have a meeting with my shrink in a few moments anyway and I don't to be dragged there like the first time I was brought here."

"I'll come back as soon as I can, maybe I'll be able to bring some of your friends next time." He said while they both got to their feet.

"That would be nice, come back soon." She said as they both went on their own ways.

--

"Ok, so who are we waiting for?" Toji asked for what felt like the thousandth time in the last half an hour.

"I told you to be patient." Fuyutsuki replied, not showing any signs of annoyance despite the fact that the he was feeling it. Still, he could sympathize with the young man, his best friend was out there somewhere in unknown circumstances and they had no support whatsoever.

Just then the door to the warehouse they were meeting in opened and Gendo entered. Touji didn't even wait and charged towards the man, charging his whole right arm with energy. Shinji may have forgiven him, but after almost loosing his sister then his arm and leg because of the man, Toji was not willing to let him see the light of day. He would have splattered Gendo's head with that one fist, if it didn't collide with a black armored gauntlet. The hand belonged to a tall man wearing complete black body armor, the heavy armored plates were too heavy for even some people in Sanctuary, but they were light as a feather for this man.

No one really knew who he was, his name was the Black Knight and like most of those gathered here, he was one of the mech pilots. What made him different was that among the mech pilots he was the best, he was hand picked by John himself 100 years before as a sort of General since in Sanctuary there weren't many official ranks due to the unusual leadership. The reason for his name was the black armor he wore, his mech looked similarly and the man liked to fight at close range while wielding a sword and a shield.

"We're here because of this man, all of us." He spoke in deep voice with a British accent, further reinforcement to the title he had received. "It was his idea and his ingenuity brought us here together. I don't know what he did to deserve your hate, but I'd be a little more grateful towards him."

"He's right to hate me, he can finish what he started after all this is over, but for now, you all have other worries." Gendo said. "My son and the Sohryu girl have been practically abandoned out there and I'm sure that neither one of the people present here like that."

Several colorful agreeing statements could be heard throughout the room. Gendo smiled, not his typical evil smirk, but an actual smile which was even more visible and understandable without his beard and the glasses that obscured his eyes. They were all good people, he only hoped that it would be enough.

"Ok, I did my best to gather as many people as I could, I'm surprised that so many agreed to this rather illegal idea. I want you all to know that there's a big chance that you'll all be reprimanded after this when you'll return, not to mention that you might engage the SEELE forces, which could lead to your deaths. I have seen what SEELE likes to play with to some extent and it isn't pretty outside of an Evangelion." Gendo said in a dead serious tone.

"Do you think that we don't know that?" Misato asked, she was going there as tactical support for whatever situations may arise. "Those children are more important to me than they ever were to you. I intend to do everything in my power to make sure that they're safe."

"I know and I agree, but I want everyone to know what they're getting themselves into, after all, you might not be able to come back at all. Sarah may exile you after this move or you could die. I really don't know what could happen." Gendo said. "If you're all determined to stay, I want to know what resources we have available."

"We'll have 60 mechs out there, 10 support ships, 4 camouflage ships, one mobile command unit and 20 gun ships, if my interpretations of the crews are correct." The Black Knight spoke, looking over the mass of people in the warehouse. "In other words enough fire power to blow a few countries to hell even if we didn't have AT fields at our disposal."

"I don't know if that will be enough, but I hope so." Fuyutsuki said. "Can you people get out?"

"I have the access codes to one of the avatar gates, that's big enough to allow us to get out before they have a chance to react and close us in." A young technician spoke. "So no worries, you made the right decision to bring me in this meeting, I'll make sure that we get out. As much as I respect Lady Sarah, there's no way that she'll be able to organize anything that would stop us and this has to be done."

"What about the gun ships, aren't those larger than that?" Gendo asked, not knowing much about Sanctuary's military hardware.

"They are, but gunships are docked on the outside of the sphere, it's all a matter of accessing them and moving out." A man with the distinct markings of ship captain spoke. "They'll need our support because as long as those Evas don't jump on us, we have enough fire power to blow them to pieces."

"Well, that's where we and the fighter pilots come in right?" Kensuke asked.

"Exactly, the man replied. You keep them busy and we take care of them." The man replied.

"I hope everything is clear." Gendo said. "It seems that my efforts in bringing you all here were worth it, now, go out there and help my son and the Second Child. Good luck to all of you."

Everyone nodded solemnly as they prepared to move out. They never imagined that the cold hearted Commander of the destroyed NERV would be the one that would arrange the meeting, all for the sake of saving the two lost children.

--

When Asuka had finished her global broadcast she felt something approaching, more like a 100 something's, all Eva sized. You didn't really need a degree to know that SEELE was making their move, still, a 100 would normally seem like overkill for only one Eva. Still, Asuka knew that they were aware of the magnitude of her powers and the power of her avatar which exceeded that of soulless monsters. They would arrive soon, but she had enough time to take care of a few preparations. So she jumped in her avatar from her position on it's head.

Immediately she contacted all the people on the base on as many radio's as she could reach, hoping that she could do something about this. "Attention everyone, there are approximately 100 Evas coming here to kill me as a response to what I did just moments ago. I suggest that you run like hell, I have no way in which I can protect you people and fight those things. So run, because this place is about to become hell on earth!" She closed her radio connection, she didn't need a reply, they either ran or they died, but she could clearly see that the German soldiers had picked up the Evas on the radar and were moving out as fast as they could. Asuka took off, hoping that if she fought in the air she would avoid completely destroying the base.

Though she knew that she had to be kidding herself, with that many enemies at once, she had to keep moving so it was safe to assume that she'd be forced to fight in a rather large area because of that. Knowing the nature of her power and how messy normal Eva fights were, she knew that this would lead to a great deal of destruction. It would be surprising if it didn't end up with loss of life. Presuming of course that she could defeat these enemies, she knew that she didn't have full access to Lilith's mind bending powers, if she did, she'd just swat them out of the sky with one blast.

As it were now, she had no options but to do her best, even though she wasn't sure what weapons those things could have aside from maybe pseudo-Lances. She didn't wait to find out, as soon as they were in range, she charged an attack and blasted four Evas out of the sky with a cross blast turning them to ashes. The Evas scattered refusing to give her an easy target. That was her queue to move out, just as about 10 Evas fired positron blasts from cannons mounted on their forearms.

As the red behemoth maneuvered out of the way she noticed that non of them had pseudo-Lances, then again she assumed that even partly attempting to copy a weapon like that must have been really difficult. Several rockets flew around her, she dodged some of them while others bounced of her AT field. All that while 20 of the Evas were trying to form a sort of perimeter around her, being armed with long spear like weapons, designed to keep an enemy at a distance.

That idea proved to be stupid as Asuka blasted right through one of them and took of in a straight line up, avoiding fire from several attacks. After about a minute of ascent, when the Evas were most likely convinced that she was trying to escape, she turned and released the concentrated energy of several minutes of charging. The resulting blast blew ten more Evas to dust and burnt the wings of 6, causing them to fall out of the sky.

Out of the blast, a bunch of positron beams came straight at her, 2 caught her in the chest, because the others broke the AT field she was projecting at the time. At the same time two more Evas rushed out and caught the red giant by its arms. Still, Asuka wasn't defeated that easily and as the red behemoth roared, the two Evas that were stupid enough to touch her were turned into LCL by the use of a short range anti-AT field. Asuka couldn't produce them over a large area, but she could project it from her body and destroy AT fields that were in contact with her. Lilith had developed that anti AT field so to speak, it was simply a matter of making the energy have the polar opposite resonance so to speak, not that Asuka was aware of these facts.

A result of this kind of interaction, besides the turning into LCL of the affected creature was energy, energy that she consumed, allowing her to heal the injury on her chest faster. Still, so far she had killed only 17 of them and blasted 6 out of the fight, that still left 77 monsters to deal with. Not good odds considering the missile storm they began to launch at her from launcher mounted on their backs somewhat between the wings. The missiles were small and were probably designed to be fired at clusters of troops, but fired in such heavy amounts they had the side benefit that they could weaken her field with sheer brute force. Still, the good news was that her armor and wings could shrug them of like nothing.

As several positron blasts also flew from several directions she gathered the wings around her, forming a sort of cocoon that could absorb the blast. The hits exploded harmlessly of the wings and before the Evas with melee weapons could come in and slice through she opened the wings in an instant releasing a wave of Eva sized dagger like feathers. The feathers struck about twenty of the approaching monsters and Asuka projected her energy into said monsters, using the feathers as amplifiers, blowing them to pieces. Now she had only 57 to worry about.

That was when a pillar of destructive energy formed under her and struck her from bellow, her whole world exploded in pain and she screamed in her avatar. It seemed that the pillar was designed to cause her pain, not real damage and it was working damn well since she felt that all of her body was burning, what discomfort she felt while in the volcano so long ago seemed like a mild sunburn compared to what was happening now. Everything burned so bad that she couldn't even see of hear. She feared that all was lost.

'Sorry Shinji, looks like you'll have to handle this without me…'

--

'Sorry Shinji, looks like you'll have to handle this without me…'

Through the pain the voice came, like a knife cutting through his flesh right to his heart. All the pain became secondary, there was something that it had to do. He remembered, his name was Shinji, and the voice was speaking to him. Despite the pain, he would not abandon her, despite the fact that through what he felt, he shouldn't be able to operate at all he was going to help her. He couldn't feel his memories, but he knew that she was the most important thing in the world to him.

Rage filled his heart as the behemoth roared in the void of space, no sound was heard, but the roar would have been felt if anyone was in the area, due to the AT field. The beast moved faster than physics would have ever allowed it, someone hurt HER and they would pay for that, they would feel pain greater even than his, pain greater than anything they would ever imagined in their soon to become very short lives.

It took mere moments for the potentially god-like being to reach those that angered it. Even through the pain it could feel them, it could feel the fields of energy. It roared, the strength of the roar, projected with a massive AT field threw them away from her and stopped all that they were doing. There six on the ground, with a mere thought it released energy and blasted them from its place in the sky. The beast caught her as she fell and held her with it's left arm in a sort of tight embrace. Anyone watching the scene would have found it somewhat strange, but that didn't matter, it was a surprise that thoughts like that could still exist in its mind.

The right hand brought forth the giant sword on its back and then it moved towards the remaining enemies. They never stood a chance, it could move too fast, it was too strong and it could feel their every move, since they felt as if they belonged to the Beast, to stay at its side, not fighting it. As soon as it dispatched the bothersome insects, it left the red behemoth on the ground and took of once more, the pain being once more amplified by the thoughts of all the people in the area. It was never in its ability to truly fight against its own pain, only against the pain of others, especially her pain, always against her pain…

--

When Asuka regained her consciousness she felt like crap, there wasn't an inch on her oversized body that didn't hurt after what happened. She was sure that she was as good as dead when that happened. All because she underestimated the enemy. The six Evas that had been grounded could have rejoined the fight in the sky much sooner since they could re-grow their wings. Unlike the MP Evas, these had full angel abilities, which included regeneration and stuff like that. Instead of going back after her, they stood down and channeled energy forming that pillar that trapped her so efficiently. It was a nasty tactic, but it was also very efficient since she had a hard time keeping track of what Evas were or weren't around her. The fact that they all looked the same meant that she had no way of knowing weather she was fighting the same Eva or not.

Still, the question remained, how did she get down, all she remembered was passing out from the pain after those last few thoughts, thinking that she was going to die. She felt that even more afraid than when she was about to die in the volcano so long ago. She started to look around to see if there was anything that could explain what happened. What she saw made her feel nauseous, the scene was terrible.

All around her were body parts and blood, the remaining Evas had been chopped to pieces and said pieces had fallen everywhere. It looked like something ran into them with a big blade and started swinging rapidly at them without any concerns. By the looks of things, whatever did this was too strong for the lesser beasts so to speak, even their weapons were cut, it looked in some cases that they tried to parry, but the attack passed through the weapons like they weren't there most likely.

She moved to examine one of the cut weapons and she observed that the weapon was cleanly cut, as if an atom thick blade caused it. There was only one weapon in existence that could cut like that and it had the power to do so only in the hands of one person. This brutal scene was the result of Shinji's anger, of that she was certain now. What she wondered about was how was he able to do it, since she could still feel his pain through the link, strong as ever. What ever it was that allowed him to do what he did, Asuka was grateful for it, she could continue her work and she hoped that the pain he felt would dissipate sooner so that she could see him once more…

To be continued…

A/N2: Ok, so the poll has been closed for a week now, the winning fic will have its first chapter posted along with the next update, as for what follows later, who knows. Look out for something with the name along the lines of "Children of Angels", that's what I intend to call it if it's not taken.

Well, I haven't much to say right now, just that I'll keep going and you keep reading, and don't forget to review if you bothered to read the thing? How am I else to learn? If you feel that the what you want to say may be offending or something, then send me a PM and I'll reply as needed.

Until next time...


	10. Chapter 10

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 10: Resulting actions

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

A/N: Well, here it is people, chapter ten, also, for those of view that voted in the polls, the second story should be up today.

Asuka was pondering what to do next when her senses picked up something unexpected. A Dirac Sea had opened above the crater and it was hidden by the volcanic ash rising from it. As it was, the surrounding settlements around Berlin had been evacuated because of the fallout and the sun was pretty much blocked out where she was now. With a crater that big, it would be a lot more than just the surrounding area that would be blocked out by the ash. So, she was wondering if there was something that she could do about the problem.

For now though, she was more curios about who was coming and from where, Sarah had said that she shouldn't expect any support from Sanctuary any time soon. So, that left only SEELE, which would mean that they were far better prepared than John had expected. There was always the possibility of unknown survivors from The Old Earth, John certainly never said that no one else could have escaped, so who could say if there were any others out there who were now attracted by the unusual display of power.

She was surprised to see a task force of Sanctuary ships led by sixty of the war machines she was used to work with. Their size was small enough to be easily effective in case of fighting with regular soldiers or tanks while also large enough to engage Evas in groups of three four of them. It was a case of using their maneuverability and speed to confuse the enemy and strike the enemy from more points than one. Though actually killing an Evangelion or angel was difficult without more heavy support. Or at the very least 3 to 1 odds.

'What the Hell?' Asuka asked herself, then decided to contact the approaching forces to see what was going on. "Sanctuary task force, this is Asuka Langley Sohryu, Avatar pilot, state your purpose."

(Asuka! Thank God you're still here!) Misato's voice came over the comm..

"Misato, what are you doing out here?" The German girl asked, honestly surprised to find her guardian that close to the disaster area.

(She's doing the same thing we're doing red, we're here to help save your and Shinji's asses.) Toji's voice replied instead of Misato's, only that this time it was coming from one of the mechs. (By the way, where is he?)

"I'm afraid that we have a slight problem there, he's somewhere in space and he's to far away from me to find him." Asuka replied. "Now, what the hell are you doing here stooge? Sarah said that she wouldn't be sending anyone out here any time soon. Even if she was going to send someone, she wouldn't send a rookie like you!"

(The thing is Asuka that Sarah didn't send anyone, we kinda ran out of Sanctuary by ourselves.) Misato said. (Listen we'll land near you and form a small camp by connecting the ships. You can join us on the command ship and we can talk more there.)

"Ok then…" Asuka replied, confused by yet another unexpected turn of events.

--

"So, let me get this straight, The Bastard King, Lord Son of a Bitch, former Slave Master of NERV, Gendo Rokobungi made this all possible by getting all you people together with Fuyutsuki's help and he sent you all out here to help me and Shinji?" Asuka asked after she was told how all of them got there in the first place.

"As weird as it seems that's what happened." Misato said. "It's no surprise that he was able to get us all together, after all, he wasn't the Commander of NERV for nothing, he knows how to deal with people and how to get others to see his point of view."

"He was also wise to come and see me personally." The Black Knight replied, still hidden by his armor. "I was able to pull the strings to ensure that we had the access to all of these toys, since people wouldn't have been enough to get this operation started."

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but until Shinji's pain subsides enough for him to be able to think properly, all we can really do is wait." Asuka replied. "So, we could just as well plan a few moves by ourselves until that happens. We can't let SEELE get the upper hand right?"

"I agree with the demon on that one, we have to do something we can't be sitting around on our asses all day long." Toji added. "Though, what I first want to know is what happened outside… It's full of Eva pieces out there."

Asuka ignored his use of the demon insult since she got used to it as more of a nick name and decided to explain a it about what she did after she found out that there wasn't anything to do for Shinji. It didn't take her long to tell her part of the tale and when she was done everyone was considering what she said. There would be serious repercussions all across the world to her rather bold move. There was also the more "local" crisis to consider, they couldn't just ignore the problem and hope that the Earth could just survive it without a hitch.

"Well, the whole situation sucks." Toji summed up what was going on in everyone's head.

"I would have to agree…" The Black Knight replied. "I think that the biggest problem right now is that crater out there. We have to cool it and get rid of as much of that ash as possible."

"Tell us something we don't know, though you still have to tell us what we can do about it." Asuka added.

"Well, there is one thing we can do." The lead technician said. He was a young man, at least in Sanctuary since in reality he was over 60, that went by the name of Piotr Rudolfski, a strange name by some standards, but considering where he came from it was no surprise. He was in charge of the completely civilian part of the operation, the technical division.

"Everyone knows that the S2 engine can help transform energy into matter, what they don't know is that the process can go backwards as well, turning matter into raw energy and then storing it. This reverse process can also be used to absorb heat in large areas. So, we can set up something like that to consume both the volcanic ash and absorb heat from the crater, cooling it off and sealing it."

"Anyone has any other ideas?" Misato asked, when she saw that everyone was shaking their heads, she turned back to Piotr. "See what we have to do to get such an operation going. We don't want to start anything without knowing that we can finish the job."

"Sure ma'am, I'll be right on it." He replied.

"The thing is that we might be sitting ducks while working on the problem…" Asuka added.

"That would be a problem." The Black Knight agreed. "Toji, Kensuke, I want you to take two men each and scout around the area, see what's left out there and is there's any particularly good area where we could stay close to the crater yet safe while working."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" Kensuke saluted seriously.

"We're on it…" Toji replied while heading of.

"Well, what should I do in the mean time?" Asuka asked, not really liking the idea of simply waiting.

"You should rest." The Black Knight replied. "Your body might not need it, but your mind will and we'll surely need you in top shape should anything happen."

If someone were to tell her that before she might have protested, but at the time being, she was well aware of the fact that it was becoming harder to control her powers and call upon them after all that happened. Oh, there was no doubt that physically she could handle a small war by herself right now, but her mind was tired, focusing all day to control her avatar and her powers in battle had taken its toll. So she decided to impose some sleep on her body in some spare quarters in one of the ships that came.

--

"So, what do you make of all this Ken?" Toji asked as he was flying on his patrol route around the base.

I don't know really, on one hand I can't wait to see some action, on the other hand I'm scared shitless. Came the surprisingly calm reply back. I mean, think about what powers are involved in this shit. Shinji blew up all of Berlin! What could a full scale fight between him at full scale and those four bastards do? That's not considering their forces and the Demon Girl…

"Yea, kinda scary, but we gotta do what we gotta do." Toji said back as he maneuvered his mech in the air, changing directions and scanning the area. "This place looks like hell, I think we'd choke if we didn't have air filters.. Those Eva remains aren't really helping the picture and the visibility is dropping by the minute…"

Heh, what did you expect? A picnic party? Kensuke joked. Man, and to think I once thought this kind of stuff was all about heroics and self sacrifice…

"At least some good came from it." Toji said. "It put some sense into you."

Yea… Kensuke's reply was dominated by a thoughtful tone, one which Toji heard a lot more frequently these days. Toji continued to survey the area, looking over the carnage, thankful that he couldn't smell anything, that he didn't hear more than the hum of his equipment and the sounds of molten rock churning in the crater that was now to his right.

He couldn't help but wonder what kind of forces could SEELE have if they afforded to waste 100 Evas just like that. He suspected that if they didn't take her by surprise, she would have actually won against those monsters. Even when she was supposed to die she got out, Shinji the ever reliable warrior that he had become came for her, even 

in his maddened state and clouded by what Asuka described as indescribable pain. That kind of act really put things in perspective. Those two must have really loved each other, more than he thought it was possible.

Toji wasn't stupid, he noticed how Shinji used to look at the foreign girl long before Third Impact, he noticed that she seemed somewhat different around him, even though he could never understand exactly what was different. He didn't expect it to go this far, but it did, it went farther then he thought it was possible.

He honestly didn't believe that he could find the strength that Shinji did when Asuka was in danger for Hikari, he knew that he didn't have that kind of determination. Those two had something between them beyond what he could understand, so he was happy for his friend, even if he chose a girl like her. Asuka was still unnerving for a lot of other people, but she was calming down, she was learning to leave her defenses down, not to mention that towards Shinji she was a completely different person. So that was all that mattered to Toji, knowing that his friend could be happy.

While thinking this, Toji realized that he probably wouldn't have thought the same way before, but like many that were around Tokyo-3 and involved with the Evas, he knew that he was no longer a child, he didn't know what he was, but he wasn't a kid anymore. This war had stripped him of his childhood, nowhere near as bad as those two, but enough to let him have a far different view of the world from many other kids his age. Learning to fight in a war mech wasn't something normal kids did, neither was going on patrol missions trying to ensure that a temporary base was safe from the attacks from an enemy that was beyond normal human understanding.

You're awfully quiet. Knesuke observed.

"Yea well I just have a lot on my mind." Toji replied. "Anything interesting on your end?"

Nope, just gore, ash, heat and the likes. Kensuke replied, by the sounds he heard Toji could tell that he was checking the sensors as well, probably doing another sweep. Still nothing…

"Let's just head back, we've been out here for long enough." Toji said and signaled to the two others that were with him that it was time to turn back.

Sure, I think we've seen all there is to see, let someone else have some fun out here…

--

What was left of SEELE was in a bit of a turmoil, no surprise there given the circumstances. They sent out 100 Evas out there to take care of the Second Child, it looked like they would succeed too, that was until something happened. Some sort of presence manifested itself on the battlefield, its radiating power alone was enough to cut them of from their servants, leaving them to fend for themselves. The last thing they received from the Evas were signals signifying their defeat, even those were fewer than they should have been.

"It seems that we underestimated our enemies…" Keel said. "This will be far more difficult than I expected."

"The real question is if the Third came back and used Adam's powers or the Second awakened as well…" 03 said. "Long term, the second option would be worse, short term, the first one would be worse, no matter how you put it, we're in a very bad situation here…"

"Indeed, the fact that they know where to find us with the help of Ikari's knowledge is just as bad." SEELE 4 said. "I don't know exactly what we can do to win this war now."

"There is only one option." Keel said. "We gather all of our forces at this location and make preparations to leave this planet. We find somewhere else to raise our armies where we ourselves are safe, then we return and complete our plans. In the worst case scenario, we'd have to sacrifice our current forces to hold out Sanctuary's forces led by those accursed children and that blasted man."

"A wise plan… but can we be ready in time?" 02 asked. "We have no idea when they'll attack or with how many forces. We have absolutely no clues as to how powerful our opponents are, while they at least have a fair knowledge of what we can throw at them."

"It is of little consequence." 03 said. "We will escape, that's not the problem, the question is where we are going."

Keel raised his hand and an image of the galaxy formed between the four of them. He magnified one of the spiraling arms, then closed in on a nebula, afterwards on a star hidden within it. In the orbit of the star was a single planet, details about it were presented directly from Keel's mind, showing it to have very basic conditions to support very little life, but more than enough for their engineered monsters. The main perk of the planet though were what could be considered vaults of highly dense materials all over it. The denser the substance, the more energy it would provide when converted and that meant more matter when it was transformed back to a material form.

All in all, that planet was practically made for creating large armies on it. The problem was the distance it was at, but that didn't mean much, with the help of the AT field, the four of them could easily bend time and space to reach it with ease. The problem was that they had to get some distance from New Earth, otherwise, the residual energy from the failed Impacts could throw them of course and that wouldn't be good since of course meant both in direction and in distance. Landing in some random part of the galaxy was not something they wanted.

"Well, it seems that you thought of everything Keel." 04 said as he looked over the projected image. Keel smirked a bit before replying.

"I've learned how to handle these things ever since I wrote those scrolls, amazing how humanity is easily fooled with simple tricks. Though, these weak creatures can hardly be called humans."

"Indeed, yet we shall ascend them, weather they like it or not." 03 said.

The four evil men continued to plot their escape and some of the outlines of their inevitable return, never even thinking that failure was possible. They fell in the same arrogance that ensured their defeat eons ago, against a man that was dead now, even if they thought that he was still alive.

--

Piotr was a hard working man, he had worked with S2 technology, if you could call it that, for a very long time, so preparing something that would take care of the Berlin problem wasn't all that hard for him. He, unlike many others wasn't shocked when he saw the destruction that was caused, he knew from experience that the S2 engine was a powerful tool and it literally provided unlimited energy. The question was of course of how much you could handle at once without risking to explode. In this case, practice made perfect, the more you used that kind of energy, the more you could handle in time.

Still, this was not the problem at hand. Speaking of which, he already had a solution, the only reason for which he didn't rush back to Misato and the Black Knight with it was the fact that he was running it through the command ship's computers and looking for alternatives as well. He had to make sure that this was the best case scenario and 

that nothing else could be done. He wanted to be sure that they weren't caught of guard during the operation, since they had no idea what SEELE could know or if they would attempt to strike at their location.

The plan was simpler than it could have been, for the simple reason that they had an Evangelion there, Asuka's avatar, Unit-02. It could handle a very large output and input of power, larger than the S2 units of any of the ships there. The flow it could support would be further influenced by Asuka's concentration and her willpower, which no one doubted that they were quite high.

The plan involved Unit-02 and four of the support ships. With minor modifications they could begin to suck in the ash and heat, turning it to energy, they would absorb as much as possible, but he knew that they couldn't get enough to cool of the crater quickly enough. That was where Asuka would come in, she would take on the surplus of energy, which would be quite a lot and she would absorb it or at the very least redirect what she couldn't absorb as pure light towards the sky. The thing was, that no matter how fast they would go at it, the whole thing would last at least two hours, most likely more than that.

Piotr sipped from his drink as he waited for the computer to finish its work and give him the data he needed. He was happy that normal alcoholic drinks had no effect on him, so drinking some brand or another of different stuff wasn't forbidden to him, since everyone knew that he could take it and keep working without any problems.

It didn't take much longer, so after emptying his glass, he got to work and readied a report. Several minutes later it was compiled and ready to be delivered to the two so called commanders of this patchwork operation of theirs. He got to his feet and proceeded to see the two, wondering if they would go along with it.

--

"I say that we should go through with it." Asuka said after Piotr finished explaining the operation to them. "We don't really have enough time to stand around and plan anything better and if SEELE does try something during the operation we can just stop and fight or move away."

"Well, the position is actually pretty easy to defend with what forces we have, we can easily form a perimeter of fire around you with the gunships and the war mechs can provide additional cover." Misato said after a brief look at the map. "Plus, we'd be hidden in all that volcanic ash up until the near end of the operation and there aren't any satellites in the region to show them where we are and what forces we have."

"We can shoot any aircraft out of the sky long before they could get close enough to show SEELE what we're doing." The Black Knight said, also looking at the map. "Plus, I think that they'll be waiting at least a day or two before they try anything against you."

"Yea, Shinji did a real number on the remaining Evas, if they got even half of what he did, I imagine that they're scared of him." Asuka replied with a smirk. "So it's settled, we go through with this."

"Yes, we're going through with this." Misato said with a sigh. "How long will it take to get those ships ready Piotr?"

"About 20 minutes ma'am." He replied, laughing slightly when Misato growled at the ma'am part.

"So we'll start the operation in an hour then." She said, considering to smack the man in the head. "That will give us more than enough time to brief everyone and get the ships in position."

"I'll see to it that everyone on the front line is ready." The Black Knight added. "Hopefully we won't see any fighting during this operation. I don't want to be forced to repeat this more than once."

"Agreed." Asuka replied. "I'm going to get ready and thanks for bringing me a spare armor."

"No problem, we couldn't have you walking around in one covered in dried blood all the time could we?" Misato said. "God I wish this could get over with already."

--

He was in his mind so to speak, maybe the pain forced him to blackout in the end, or maybe it was the only way to protect himself from it. Either way, he was glad that he had this unexpected break, no matter what the reasons. He couldn't feel anything else than his connection with her, Asuka, as he sat in the familiar train cart. He hadn't been here since Third Impact and he didn't really want to come back here either, but apparently this happened weather he liked it or not. What surprised him was the person that was sitting across from him, it was John, Shinji had wondered what happened with the man after that flash of light.

"Oh, that's quite easy Shinji, I died, Berlin was turned into a smoldering crater and your full powers have been unlocked." John replied casually as if he was talking about some mundane subject. Shinji remained calm, there was no reason to become agitated until he learned the full extent of what happened. So far, he didn't even know if this was real or not and he had learned that getting depressed or angry over an event that already happened and you couldn't change while being unable to do anything at all didn't really help.

"Wise choice." John spoke once more. "As bad as it is, the facts are that this is real and there's nothing anyone can do about it."

"So, if you're dead, then how are you talking to me?" Shinji asked, deciding to trust this John, even if later he proved to be a projection of his own subconscious or something else like that.

"Well, apparently the soul doesn't immediately pass on after death, it's staying in this world for now, time in which I can contact people, due to my nature while I was alive." John replied. "I have no idea where I'm going after this, but the facts are that I can't turn back. Before I'm forced to leave, I have to talk to you, since my plans didn't really go as I wanted them too."

"Well, seeing as you died, I'd have to agree with that statement…" Shinji said.

"Indeed, I bet, that you're wondering what went wrong." It was a statement not a question but Shinji nodded regardless. "Well, the attack meant to overload my adversary caught you in the core. Since you weren't prepared to absorb any kind of energy and you have enormous powers, you practically lashed out as Adam did during Second Impact. Thankfully only Berlin was obliterated along with some satellites. Anyway, don't feel guilty about anything, the fact is that there was nothing you could have done, nothing at all. It might have been a twist of fate that allowed these events to take place, I don't know, but the fact is that they were unavoidable at that time, nothing you would have done could have changed the outcome."

"You're saying that so I won't feel guilty when I return to my senses…" Shinji replied in a detached manner. "Though, I can see he logic in your words, I think I'll be able to deal with it. Still, I don't know when I'll recover from what happened to me."

"Ah, the agony you're feeling." John said while readjusting his position in his seat. "Well, that's all because your body wasn't ready for its own power, if you weren't so changed from your old human form, this would have killed you for sure. If you weren't in your avatar, you would have had a chance to die even then."

"Lucky me then." Shinji chuckled. "It seems that despite the extreme odds I keep pulling through."

"Both you and Asuka." John said with a smile. "That doesn't matter right now though. What you should know is the fact that it will only take time for the energy to run its course through your body and you to return to normal. Even without it fully fading and I'm sure that you can handle yourself, as you already did when Asuka needed you help against SEELE's Evangelions."

"So that's what I was fighting." Shinji said. "I didn't really know, I just struck at what tried to harm her. I wasn't really thinking about much else, just that I was going to make sure that whatever they were, they would die."

"The so called berserker rage, something that very few can control." John replied. "Berserkers… the thing is, people like you can never be trained, no matter what type of conditioning or discipline you instill in a soldier, you can never get a genuine Berserker, like you. You have to be born with the quality, and very few truly have it. A true Berserker can never lose in battle if it can still move, the only way you'll ever be defeated is outside the battlefield or if you're unwilling to fight, otherwise, with your powers, you'll just get stronger no matter what the enemy throws at you."

"Are you saying I'm invincible?" Shinji asked, then laughed. "I find it hard to believe John."

"Invincible means that you cannot be defeated no matter what the circumstances are, while you can, so I'm not saying that you're invincible." John replied calmly. "Though, as long as an enemy doesn't realize that you are what you are, you'll defeat them eventually, no matter how powerful they are, you'll just become even stronger."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Shinji asked.

"Because you'll eventually be forced to fight the four bastards that are still alive." John replied. "I'm telling you that you shouldn't hold back, no matter what, that as long as you want to win you WILL win, no matter what they might try against you. Shinji Ikari, you are a genuine Berserker and therefore, IF you fight, you WILL come out victorious. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

"I think I understand." Shinji stated in a somber tone. "Though, you must understand that I don't want to kill other people."

"Where those four are concerned, there is no other choice." John said. "With what they did and what they are, I doubt that you could call them human beings anymore. They are far too twisted and despicable to deserve the title of human at this moment in time. They are passed redemption."

"I don't know that for sure and neither do you." Shinji replied. "If they can be kept alive and leave me the choice of allowing them to live, then I will let them live. I can't willingly kill another human being. Kaworu was too much, I don't want to do that again."

"Even if they threaten Asuka?" John asked with an evil smirk. "She'll be on the front lines and knowing how they think, killing them will be the only way to ensure that they can't try anything against her. If they remain alive, even powerless, they'll find some way to at least extract revenge. They're not stupid, so they'll strike at those around you, not at you, turning your life into a living hell. They'll wait, then they'll strike at her, or maybe at your friends, maybe they'll attempt to kill your mother just after she receives her body and has a chance to live again. They'll know that Asuka might be too powerful, but about your future kids, I'm sure you'll inevitably have some, they could even use her pregnancy as a moment to strike. She'll be nearly powerless while pregnant, I know that as a fact."

Shinji listened intently and his expression darkened with every implied threat from the Old Men. As always, John was not only telling these things, but he was sharing them with Shinji in such a manner that insured that he knew that it was true. Fact which made Shinji wonder, how far gone were those four… men… or whatever they were. Was it truly no way to ensure that the world was safe except killing them? As much as Shinji wanted an alternative, it didn't seem like there was one. Meanwhile John waited for him to pass these things through his mind and reach a conclusion.

--

Sarah was not having a good day, again, she had gone to sleep in an attempt to calm her mind and when she woke up she had been announced that a large group head left Sanctuary with enough weapons to blow the world to pieces, presuming that SEELE wasn't in their way first. When she heard that they had been helped by the notorious Black Knight, she had felt even more confused. Like everyone else, she had no idea who the man was or why John had trusted him so much. There had to be a reason for which he had done that, never once had he betrayed John's trust, but apparently the same couldn't be said for her.

So, she tried to track down the source of this event. It wasn't hard, with her powers it took a few seconds to find the two sources together having tea. Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who didn't seem at all surprised when she materialized in the second's home just as they were drinking said tea.

"Would you like a cup?" The old professor asked, apparently they had been expecting her to show up, fact which wasn't exactly what she was expecting.

"Why not, it's not like I have anything better to do right now…" Sarah replied, a bit of anger leaking out with her voice. "You two knew that I would come, didn't you?"

"Yes, it was an expected action." Gendo said. "After all, you couldn't just sit around after we arranged something like that right under your nose."

"You both realize that I could kill you is I wanted to and simply ensure that no one remembers you ever existed, or something equally terrible just because I feel like I'm going insane, right?" Sarah asked, her tone wasn't threatening, but the way the windows rattled as she spoke delivered the point across. "Who knows what could happen to those that left! What if they don't find either Asuka or Shinji and are forced to fight SEELE's forces by themselves? They could be killed!" The house shook with the last scream.

"People DIE in a war!" Gendo ruthlessly replied. "Get over your loss and do something then! Focus or whatever you have to do. This is my last chance to properly set things right with my son. I will not lose it because he died due to your inactions! I may not know much about Sanctuary, but I do know enough about people to get that group together and send them to help!"

"What if they went to their deaths?" Sarah asked, trying to calm down and taking a sip from the provided tea.

"It was their choice." Gendo said simply. "They all wanted to act, all I did was ensure that they got together and actually did something. If you want to be sure that they won't die, why don't you get Sanctuary's forces moving and send full support. From what Shinji told me, you have quite an army, enough to challenge SEELE's might and have a fair chance to beat them."

"I am not a military commander, all I could do would be to order them to get ready, get out there and that would be it." Sarah replied. "They'd be on their own and I don't think that the current commanders we have are  experienced enough to actually be able to do something against SEELE's organized forces. We didn't exactly have any wars up until now. We know how to fight, since John ensured that we had live simulations and actual fights amongst the men, occasionally leading to real injuries. Yet we never actually thought like this before."

"Than try and have faith in those that are already there." Fuyutsuki suddenly added. "The former Major, miss Katsuragi knows how to get a job done and that Black Knight as everyone calls him seems to be able to handle anything she can't cover. Plus, the powers of the two Children should balance things quite nicely."

"Indeed, not to mention that doing something, even with the risk of being the wrong move can be better than doing nothing." Gendo said with a smirk. "Even my son learned that lesson well. Right now, you're giving SEELE the chance to act without you knowing anything. So when you will eventually make a move you could either be too late or they could be far too ready for you to achieve anything with it. In simpler words, you're letting them win instead of pressing the advantage. Yes, John died, yes, everything went to hell during that moment and yes, Berlin was destroyed and thus a terrible tragedy occurred, but this is not the time for moping around since SEELE would have been equally shocked at first."

"What if…" Sarah started, but Gendo cut her of.

"What ifs? There are endless what ifs, there will always be SOMETHING that could go wrong, but if you don't act you will achieve NOTHING!" He continued in a calmer voice after the initial outburst. "Do you have any ideas how many "what ifs" there were when I made my plan for Instrumentality? More than I could ever count, many remained despite my best attempts to cover everything and as you can clearly see I was unable to cover everything. Yet I at least tried to do something. I may have made the wrong choice back then and I will regret what I did for the rest of my life, but at the very least I did something that in the end screwed up SEELE's plans as well. What if I would have just allowed them to have their way? Maybe they would have succeeded despite everything that could have went wrong and then I really would have regretted even being born."

"He has a point." The old professor sighed. "You must at least try to do something about the situation at hand, or the situation will change around you and it could eventually overcome you and any attempts to change it. Plus, it would be a shame to sacrifice those two just because there are too many unknowns? Isn't it time after all the sacrifices they made for all of us that some of us sacrifice something for them as well?"

Sarah remained silent at that remark, they both made very good points and she could feel that they were both honest with her. With her powers, even before it would have been quite stupid to try and lie to her, right now, she could read their whole lives if she wanted too and they wouldn't even know it. She didn't want to act so soon, but they had a point, what if by not acting she was ensuring the defeat she feared so much. She was no tactical commander and the ones that were still here didn't have any real experience, but maybe those that were already on the front lines could handle it.

There was also the matter of Shinji and Asuka, those two had sacrificed a lot for humanity as a whole and had been used like tools from the beginning of their lives. Maybe it was time that all that pain was repaid, maybe it was time that they received something different, instead of more problems like the power they now had. The question was, could they really do this, could they stop SEELE. She didn't even know if they were still alive right now… So if she sent any forces out there, it would be a complete gamble, but at least they'd be in direct contact with Sanctuary and she could pull them back if anything went wrong.

"Argh! I hate my life…" Sarah said and then she disappeared from the house just like she appeared.

"Do you think that she'll do something?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"I have no idea old friend, but I surely hope so, otherwise this whole conversation with her was a waste of time." Gendo replied. "There's nothing we can do anymore, just hope that everything turns out alright. All I can do right now is help Ritsuko get in her feet once more, then see where that will lead me."

"I never thought that something good could ever come out of that relationship." The old professor chuckled. "Then again, you were always able to surprise everyone when you really wanted to."

Gendo didn't reply to that, he just took a sip from his tea and smirked a bit, while wondering if he made the right choice in trying to motivate Sarah.

--

Back on Earth, the operation was ready to proceed, Asuka was in her avatar at the very center of the crater and the support ships were ready to suck up heat and volcanic ash. She could feel the countdown in her mind as it was transmitted, then, the process began and soon energy was flowing to her. It was an almost physical effort to focus and ensure that the energy was controlled and nothing happened to make things worse than they already were.

Meanwhile, Misato was watching from the command ship, Kaji was next to her, watching the "action" as well. He had tagged along in case they needed his old contacts in the intelligence business, since they didn't expect to find Asuka this easily. Frankly, they expected her to hide her avatar somewhere and then to try and hide along with Shinji, with their powers it wouldn't have been that difficult to manipulate the right people and disappear from the radar. Then again, Asuka had the habit of doing exactly what you least expected in these situations, that and the whole situation with Shinji wasn't expected at all.

"Well, it looks like she's able to handle it." Misato idly commented. "Now let's hope that nothing goes wrong and we can get his over with. I really don't like the way we're exposed here."

"I'm sure no one does, but it doesn't look like anything will be happening any time soon." Kaji replied with a thoughtful expression. "From what I heard while I was snooping around, SEELE seems to have disappeared from the planet. The question is where did they go, I doubt that they simply left."

"I'm not so sure about that." Misato said. "They don't know our status and as far as they're concerned, John is still alive along with Shinji and Asuka, at least I don't think they have any idea that he's dead. So, they know that with everything exposed, there would be nothing to prevent John from marching on them with all of his forces."

"Well, maybe we should do just that, even if we don't have all of Sanctuary's armies under our command." Kaji wondered. "It's not like they'll gather all of their forces in one location right?"

"I don't know, I really have no idea what they could do." Misato replied, looking over the possibilities in her mind. "Who knows what they could do or what they think that it's their best option. At least we know what we're fighting here, so at the very least we know that we CAN fight them."

"This whole situation is wrong I suppose…" Kaji stated. "As if we haven't been through enough. Even after all this time, this whole situation doesn't feel right. I wonder if this is how we were meant to live our lives…"

"That's quite deep for you, are you sure you're feeling alright?" Misato asked with a sly grin. Kaji sighed then smiled back at her, he embraced her from behind and kissed her neck, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"Who knows if anyone's alright after all that happened." Kaji replied. "I guess I've just been thinking too much."

"Well, as soon as we have a break from these stressful situations, I'll get your mind of your problems." She didn't mentioned that she wanted to forget about hers as well, then again, she didn't need to, he knew all too well that she was just as worried as she was.

--

"Tell me Shinji, what will you do when this war will be over?" John asked, breaking the silence that formed between them. "What do you want?"

Shinji seemed to consider that question, while also trying to keep his thoughts centered on the problem he was dealing with earlier. "I don't know for sure, all I know is that I'll find my way with Asuka."

"Not surprising I suppose, but, what would you do if she were to die?" John asked that serious.

Shinji didn't even need to say answer, as the mindscape changed to express his thoughts. While before his answer might have been anger directed at himself and a severe depression, now, when he had power, a lot of power that could change many things, the answer was slightly different.

The train car disappeared and they were soon found in a powerful storm, one like never before, Unit-01 appeared behind Shinji it's jaws open in a maddening roar, it being covered and surrounded by blue raging flames, the twelve wings radiating energy as well. It held the Lance of Longinus in it's right hand in its sword form. Shinji's form remained unchanged, but the images that were spinning around them, with Unit-01 as the eye of the storm, told the story far to well.

A lesser man might have been afraid seeing the same scene, terrified by the awesome might displayed around him, but John was no stranger to displays of power, so he didn't even flinch. He grinned though, it was a strange grin, one that Shinji never saw before, but that didn't do anything to lessen the anger caused by the suggestion alone. After all he had been through along with her, after all that happened, the idea was too much to joke about.

"The very idea just makes you angry, doesn't it?!" John's voice was somewhat taunting, as if he liked seeing that anger. "I can see it, I don't need to look at this…" he waved his hand around at the madness "to know that, I only have to look in your eyes."

He paused for a bit, keeping the same smirk. "You have the power to ensure that such a thing won't happen any time soon, but of the old men live, it might be for naught. How do you think she would feel if you were to die and live her alone then?"

"If they will live, it's only a matter of time until they gain the strength to kill one of you, purposely leaving the other alive!" John said. "Do you want that to happen? Do you want to make my mistakes? I allowed them to live and look what they did?! I see now that it was a subconscious choice, not an accident as I once thought, and because of that look at ho much everyone suffered. How much YOU and HER suffered! All because I didn't want to kill them, foolishly thinking that without their powers they could be no threat. DO NOT MAKE MY MISTAKE!"

He was yelling at Shinji by the end, yelling on top of his lungs, if a ghost had any that is. Shinji remained silent, still thinking in quiet anger, he didn't know what to do, he didn't want to kill, but it seemed like there was no alternative left. What could he do?

"I will still give you two last gifts Shinji, one for your conscience and one for your future battle." John said, calming once more. "It will probably only delay the inevitable, but it will allow you to handle this in a better way, at the very least I hope so."

John spread his arms. "This is my end Shinji Ikari, we will meet no more! I give to you something that should be very useful, something that will allow you to keep your heart as pure as it is now to some extent. I'm sure that both Adam and Lilith would have wanted this."

"It's time for us elders of the Old Earth to disappear, it's time for your generation to rise. You must return to them all, and end the war that plagued our old world. You have been marked with this destiny since the moment your mother stepped into Unit-01! I did all I could and no I am doing my last duty!"

With those words, John faded and Shinji's mind was filled with voices, thoughts, sensations, memories that were not his. His world became an endless white void as his mind accepted one of John's two gifts…

--

The operation took a bit much for Asuka's tastes, but at least it was over, she could go and lie down and try to sleep through the head ache that she had developed handling her part in it. The Sanctuary runaways now had their base in the new rocky valley which was where Berlin once stood. They were somewhat bellow sea level as far as Asuka could tell, but at least the disaster had been stopped to some extent. It would be a while to determine the extent of the damage done by the event.

She made her way back to the command ship, looking forward to a bed, any kind of bed would do, just as long as she could sleep in it. Presuming that she would be able to convince her body to fall asleep that is, the fact that her avatar absorbed so much energy affected her as well, meaning that she felt overcharged, even if her mind felt exhausted. That's how her head ache started, because of the very powerful contradicting sensations she was feeling.

"Hey, good job Asuka!" Misato cheered as she entered, but Asuka visibly winced from the words and raised a hand to her head.

'Could you please keep it down?!' Asuka asked, speaking directly in Misato's mind, not needing any more sounds to make things worse. Misato was startled, since that was the first time anyone talked to her like that.

"Sorry." Misato whispered. "I'll let you get some rest then."

Asuka didn't bother to reply, she just went to the first bed she could find, locked the door, took of her armor and collapsed in her bad, not giving a damn that she was naked. If anyone did dare to enter the room, she could blast them out with a cross flare or something before they could see anything and if they did, she could always erase their memory with her powers.

Still, sleep wouldn't come that easily for her, it seemed that her earlier assumption about her body had been correct. This was one of those situations she didn't really like about having her powers and having virtually unlimited energy. She just groaned and closed her eyes, trying to force the sleep to come to her…

--

Voices can be heard, discussing something, a woman can be heard speaking, her tone is firm, seemingly giving orders to someone. The room is dark, not revealing the figures within, only two people can be seen within the dark 

room, hidden in the shadows. A window can be seen, but it's leading to more darkness, it could almost look like what you'd see in a black hole, if one were to know how one looks from within that is. There are shapes moving in the darkness, many unknown shapes, but like the two figures in the room, it's impossible to determine what could lurk in the seemingly unending darkness. The two figures don't seem to be bothered by it though.

"So, how will we deploy all this?" a male voice asks.

His companion, the woman sighs before replying. "Let me worry about that. Is everything ready as I wanted?"

"Everything is as you asked ma'am." The same man replies. "Are you certain that this is necessary? It seems like a bit much…"

"Yes, all of this is necessary… I'm actually wondering if it is enough, seeing what we're going to go up against." The woman replied. "Our only real chance even with such forces is if someone kills the lead in the opposing team, then we would have won for sure. Otherwise, we'll probably have almost complete casualties before winning."

"You have too little faith in them ma'am…" The man muttered, but it was obvious that she heard him anyway.

"They're not ready, that's why he was so reluctant to fight in the first place, but we have no choice in this." She said. "Those two were right and I really couldn't live with myself if I were to allow that disaster to happen. I'm sick of all of these tragedies and this is the only chance to end it."

"You know, there's a rumor that he had a special plan for this… Though no one knows what it was…" the man said. "Now that… you know… maybe you could tell what it was, after all you're one of the few who could know."

"That plan doesn't matter anymore, the basic thing of it is that he wanted to kill her to set everything of. It would have worked too I think, but the price would have been to high, maybe it's better this way." The woman spoke, her voice straining a bit. "Just go and give the order, I'll make sure that they get there…"

"Yes ma'am." The man said. Steps can be heard, signaling his departure from the room. The woman sighs after he leaves.

"I wonder… is this what I should do? What you would want me to do?"The woman asks, speaking softly to herself. "I guess I'll never know… It could be very well be that this was your true plan after all."

An eerie sound can now be heard, as well as a sound that seems like sparkling electricity that's dancing in the unknown room. It soon reverts to silence…

--

Misato had returned to the ship's command deck, looking over the different displays, being grateful that the operation went so well. There were no signs of an attack, and she wasn't about to complain about that. After all, even though they had better equipment than SEELE, they only had Asuka's avatar as a truly efficient weapon against other Evas. Sure, they could kill Evas with the help of the mechs and the gunships weapons had severe effects on them, but the only true way to easily destroy an Eva was another Eva.

Still, SEELE was either unaware of what was going on, or they were carefully considering their options in these circumstances. After all, she would be cautious as well after the spectacular failure Asuka had described. She would think twice before attacking again after the destruction caused by Unit-01, presuming that they knew he did it. 

There was the possibility that they didn't know, in which case, they could presume that Asuka was the one that destroyed their forces, in which case, they would know that there was the risk of even greater trouble.

Her mind continued to shift through possibilities, trying to determine what SEELE might do and what they could do against them. Misato wasn't foolish enough to think that they could take one SEELE's forces with what they had at their disposal. The only thing they could really do would be to somehow infiltrate their bases, still, seeing the results of the last attempt for such a maneuver, she was reluctant to even consider such an idea. How could they defeat them with so little forces?

As much as she tried to find a solution to that question, she knew all to well that this was one problem that didn't have an answer. It was simply impossible to face those odds with these forces. So, they needed more forces, they needed a real army. Still, there was no way to contact Sanctuary and even if there was one, she knew that there was now way that they would convince Sarah to give them enough troops to engage the SEELE forces.

It was then that an alarm started blaring and the light that was shown in some displays faded, covered by a dark shadow. Those that were overseeing the sensors sprung into action, investigating what was going on. The Black Knight rushed in, but Misato voiced the question he had in his mind before he could.

"What the hell is going on?"

"It's a Dirac Sea ma'am!" One of the technicians said. "It's forming right above us, and it's the largest opening we've ever seen! It's still unstable, but it's only a matter of time until it becomes stable enough to allow mater to pass through it!"

"Any idea if this is caused by Sanctuary?" The Black Knight asked.

"I doubt it sir! This isn't caused by our normal devices, I can't determine the source." The technician spoke once more. "Plus, it's too big. We usually open more smaller ones if we need to move something really big. I can't imagine what would require something this big though."

"Good point…" The Black Knight muttered.

"What could even cause something like this?" Misato asked. "It's a lot bigger than what the 12th opened."

"Shinji, Asuka, John if he had his full powers… or possibly those four assholes if they focused together…" The Black Knight replied. "Pick the one you think is best."

"Asuka's asleep and I doubt it's Sarah…" Misato said, though not knowing if the later one was true. "So, it's either Shinji or SEELE, but what could they do with one of those?"

"A massive attack maybe." The armored man beside her said. "Signal all the ships to prepare for combat! Get all their pilots to their mechs as soon as possible!"

"Shouldn't we call Asuka and send her to her avatar as well?" Misato asked

"Do you really think she could handle it after that three hour long operation?" He asked. "Trust me, it's one thing to use your powers in bursts and so on during combat… and it's totally another thing to be forced to constantly use them for a long period of time like that."

"Ok… good point, she'd probably get herself killed in those conditions." Misato said. "Shit, why do these things have to happen at the worst of times?"

"The Sea has apparently reached maximum dilatation!" The technician replied. "It's starting to stabilize!"

"Well, looks like we'll get to see what's going on soon enough." The Black Knight said. "Let's just hope that it's not just a rain of attacks from within… That would force us to start moving and if we'd even consider to counter-attack, we'd have to go in."

"That would be rather suicidal." Misato said, the other didn't think there was a need to reply.

'What's with all the racket?!' Everyone heard the scream in their heads, as it was obvious that Asuka didn't bother to come and seek answers.

Misato didn't know if the silence was caused by someone replying to her, or the girl was still waiting for one. She found her answers soon enough though.

'So you're all going nuts because of the Dirac Sea above us? Trust me, there's nothing to worry about it.' Asuka's reply came back, surprising everyone. 'So STOP THE DAMN NOISE!'

"What could she mean by that?" Misato asked, obviously confused.

"Sir? Ma'am? You won't believe this…" The technician said, his tone making it clear that he was shocked by whatever his sensors were reporting.

Misato looked at the screens in time to see the Dirac Sea seemingly exploding and dissipating, but that was not what was shocking everyone so much. Where the Dirac Sea once stood, you could now see an entire fleet of ships, swarms of war mechs flying around them. The sight was quite unsettling, but it was more unexpected than anything.

"My God… That's the whole fleet…" Someone said in awe, Misato's mind was still to busy trying to figure out a proper reaction to what she was seeing.

It was truly an awesome sight, especially if you didn't know exactly how large Sanctuary was. Overall, the population of Sanctuary was quite large, since it was one of the reasons for which Earth wasn't overpopulated before Second Impact, even though no one on Earth knew that. The fact that they didn't have any wars or diseases plus better medical treatments in case injuries did happen, more likely because of accidents than anything else did wonders for the population there. The increased life span also allowed them to gain an increased population very quickly.

That was why the extra spheres were needed. It wouldn't be surprising if even more would be necessary in time. Still, the point was that, with a large population, a rather large army was possible as well. It wasn't as large as it could be, but it was still larger than Misato had expected.

Misato was watching the whole thing, there were ships ranging from support and command ships to large destroyers, the kind of ships that were used to raise cities of the face of planets. Still, above all, there was the pride of the fleet, a ship three miles long, one mile tall and a little over half a mile wide in average, since it wasn't a perfect geometric shape. Misato never even imagined a ship that large before, much less seen one flying right above her head.

There was no doubt about it, Sanctuary's fleet had fully arrived, ready for battle, the question was, what was their purpose?

To be continued…

A/N: I hope you guys liked this, I did my best with it, as much as it was possible. It won't be much longer till the end of the story. Liked it? Hated it? Leave a review and let me know what you think, I'll get back at you if there's need for it. If you don't want to leave a review but still have something to say, send me a PM.


	11. Chapter 11

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 11: The war truly begins

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

A/N: Ok, here's the next chapter, it's a miracle that I was able to get it out at all, so I might have let more mistakes slip through or have more formatting problems caused by FF(dot)Net's filters and so on. The chapter is slightly shorter than the rest of them so far, but it should be ok. For those of you also reading "Children of Angels", the next update to that one should come in with the next chapter of this one. I wanted to get it out with this one, but real life has a very annoying way of getting in my way...

Hope you like this, so send me some opinions, now on with the story...

It was the whole fleet, something that no one in Sanctuary or outside of it had ever seen fully assembled, now complete when joining the stray ships and mechs that had fled on their own. Misato was literally mouth gaping, never in her entire life had she seen such a display of power just by floating there in the sky.

The flag ship of the fleet made contact with their command ship and one of the techs put it on screen more because of reflex than any normal reaction.

"Commander Katsuragi, Sir Black Knight, what are your orders?" asked the communications officer from the ship. "The fleet is prepped and ready for combat."

"Wha?" Misato said, not even a full question. Her mind was trying to figure out what the fleet was doing here, how were these THINGS taken from a sci-fi movie even possible, what he meant with the commander bit and what she should say… all at the same time.

"Could you please explain what is going on?" The Black Knight asked, obviously more used to such strange things due to his the longer time spent in Sanctuary.

"Yes… she did say you might not understand what's going on…" The officer said thoughtfully, looking as if he was sending some commands in his console. "I've been told to put this on in case you asked."

The screen flickered as a recording was played to them. The screen switched to showing Sarah looking rather haggard and tired, it was obvious that whatever happened after they left took its toll on her. Misato didn't know if she should pity the woman or say that she got what she deserved for avoiding to do her job properly in that situation. So her life had been royally screwed by John's death and whatever else happened to her, big deal, she should have gotten over it and done her job. That was Misato's opinion, who as a soldier knew that during war, you had to set your grief aside for when the war was over not during it when lives could be lost due to inactions.

"Ok, I'll be as brief as I can… I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing here, but, I'm mobilizing the entire fleet under your command. It's literally ALL that Sanctuary produced over the centuries, all of our soldiers and all of our war orientated resources. The fact is right now I have two options, leaving you out there to do who knows what and possibly lose any chances of winning because I have no way of commanding all of these troops effectively and I don't think the officers that were left are prepared either. Or… I could send you two these forces, and hope that you two re as good as the rumors say you are. Frankly, for me it's a no win situation either way… but I think that seeing all that John invested in those two kids, this is the least I can do…" Sarah took a brief pause, looking like she was placing the rest of her thoughts in order.

"These powers are driving me insane… I understand better than ever WHY John doesn't want those people to succeed… They would gain far more power than this and they would lose their minds for sure, damning all of humanity as a result. As much as I wish I could use them to aid you out there, I can't extend my influence outside the sea of Dirac and if I leave, Sanctuary would be destroyed for the most part. All I can do is ensure that the fleet arrives at your location all at the same time with a minimal delay, ensuring that if things do go wrong, at least they'd be able to react immediately. So, do what you must and get rid of those four monsters, they have caused too much pain to the world, I think it was time they were paid back for all that pain!"

The screen flickered once more, the face of the communications officer returning. "That was all of it, ma'am, Sir, what are your orders?" He then waited patiently for them to decide whatever they wanted to decide, it was painfully obvious that his new superiors weren't prepared for this turn of events, then again, who would have been.

"Wait up there while we get these ships prepped and ready then we'll join you." Misato said, ideas rushing through her head. She might not know the full capacity of the fleet, but she did know how to use troops in battle and with the Black Knight explaining everything she needed to know about the Sanctuary forces, she could proceed to get a plan ready and make sure that SEELE paid for all the suffering they caused. "We have a lot of plans to make…"

--

It was about 12 hours later when the fleet was on the move, Misato's first move was to get all of those ships outside German airspace and into orbit before anything else happened. Those people might not know what Sanctuary was, but you didn't have to be a genius to realize that it was a fleet of warships, so, it would be safe to assume that they would cause panic. Already a lot of people were talking about an alien invasion and stuff like that. Some were even saying that the angels had been merely scouts for the real force of aliens that were meant to destroy humanity.

Of course, the soldiers on board of those ships were laughing their heads of while listening to the news reports around the globe. They were all currently in orbit, hidden from the view of satellites or anything else that might be looking for them with the help of the cloak ships in the fleet. Where else to hide then where no one can reach you? Obviously, there were other factors that lead to this course of action. They had more to deal with than simply not looking as a threat for the whole world, that was certain.

All the while Misato, the Black Knight, Asuka and several officers had been busy discussing their next move. With this fleet and SEELE going in hiding, they could probably make one decisive strike if all of the bastards were in the same place.

So, the end plan was simple but hopefully efficient. First of all they needed to locate the four heads of SEELE that were the source of all this trouble. This was another one of the reasons they were in orbit, it was far easier to look for something from space, especially with sensors like theirs. That was Asuka's department, all she had to do was locate an area that was heavily protected by AT fields against any conventional type of scanning. They suspected that SEELE might try to set up decoys with the use of the Evas in several locations around the world in their hidden bases, but apparently that was not the case.

Asuka scanned all of the bases given to them on the list with her amplified senses, the ships in the fleet even had devices that were used to further amplify this type of abilities, this being the way in which most of the sensors worked. All conventional sensors would have been fully blocked by even basic AT fields, so apparently the Sanctuary forces ignored standard sensor arrays altogether on their ships at least. That also ensured that no human without knowledge of how to use an AT field could ever operate these things. Also, as proven a long time ago by Shinji in his Eva, any kind of technology based sensors were useless in a Dirac Sea which quite literally defied several laws of physics when studied in its depths.

Though, even with those excellent sensors, it seemed like SEELE had made a full withdrawal from all of the bases that was on the list extracted from Gendo's mind. Which made no sense if you really looked at it… how could so many forces and tons of equipment vanish in so little time? Normally someone could say that it was impossible, but then again, Asuka could have said the same about what happened during Third Impact and it still happened.

She was about to give up on her search when her mind found something, in a different location. It was an area heavily shielded by AT fields, a lot of them too, too many to be able to take that place out with orbital bombardment. Asuka wondered what was so special about that location around the Equator, the computer answered for her as she requested the analysis of the data.

The area was one of the best spots on Earth for the launch of a space ship, but aside from that, there was no other useful information about the location. The fact that it was in the middle of an ocean with no odds of there being an island there didn't really make it look like the kind of place to make a permanent base. Still, with the kind of powers SEELE had at their disposal, Asuka wouldn't be surprised if she found an entire military facility there.

"I think we have enough Asuka… You can stop." Misato said from behind her while looking at the screen which displayed the data. This was enough for them to get the operation going to its next steps, at least for now.

"So… that's where the bastards are hiding… and it looks like they gathered everything they own there." Asuka said, disconnecting from the sensor array and relaxing a bit. "What do you think that they're planning to do from that place?"

"They might try to make a run for it." Misato said, thinking about the computer's assessment of the data. "I doubt they like being cornered and they don't know that Shinji is out of it for now."

"I'm not sure how he is now…" Asuka said. "I'm getting this feeling of incredible anger from him, I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but he's doing something right now and I have no idea what."

"We still can't count on him for the battle." Misato replied, taking what Asuka said into account and hoping that Shinji would return safely. Still this was not the time for such worries. "It looks like we'll have to go with our full forces to them. I don't like giving them home field advantage, but we really have to make sure that those bastards don't get away."

"So, what's your proposal then?" One of the officers in the meeting asked. "Surely we're not going to charge in there blindly?"

"No, I want scout drones sent, as many as we can afford to get as much data as possible. I want to know what defenses they have, how many troops and if possible to find out where in that base are those bastards hiding." Misato said, as all wise tacticians she knew that you had to know your enemy before you could defeat it. "Also, we're moving the fleet in geo-stationary orbit above their base, just in case they try to move out before we're ready to strike, we'll try to intercept them like this. Though, I wouldn't want to give them any chance of escape."

Several agreements came from the officers of the fleet, the Black Knight remained silent along with Asuka, there was no reason to dispute this plan and it wasn't as if SEELE could run away to another location on Earth without them noticing and descending on them like birds of prey. The real question was if they could truly defeat those armies in time, or if they could truly defeat the four bastards when thy reached them.

--

The four surviving SEELE members were waiting more or less patiently for the completion of their preparations for their departure from the planet. Even they knew when a tactical retreat was in order, they didn't survive for so long by being stupid and reckless after all. They were sure that they would escape, but they were still afraid more or les of the two Children that held such incredible powers in their hands. It seemed like a cruel joke that their mentor would leave his powers in the hands of someone else instead of allowing them to complete their plans, then again, they did intend to betray him.

"Hm… here's something odd…" Keel said. "Wait… those are sensor drones and some are pulling in close." He was currently in the control room of that impromptu launch base and factory. The base had been built after Third Impact failed with the help of their powers for just such an occasion. He never expected them to need this base ever, but fate had a strange way of playing with people and after their first supposedly infallible plan did just that, they all agreed that playing it safe was the best idea.

Keel quickly alerted the others, if Sanctuary was sending sensor drones, it meant that an attack would soon follow. The sensors didn't even pick them up, it was his own power influenced senses that found one of the drones. They would have to hold out, he was confident that their forces could buy them the necessary time to get out of there. The ship was almost complete and the launch preparations wouldn't take long, he also was confident that they could dart out of anything Sanctuary could throw at them.

He knew that Sanctuary most likely had the upper hand where powers and technology was concerned, but they had the numbers of the clones and a lot of Evas, while they had only those few Avatars of theirs, which wouldn't be enough to stop them in time. It would be a very mixed up battle, but as long as the fools weren't aware of their true goal, they could succeed, and once out in space, there would be no way for them where they had gone and no way for them to make preparations that were good enough, especially if they gave them enough time to cool off.

They could easily go out there, wait a few hundred years, gather an invincible army and then return and complete their plans through other means seeing that the two Children were obviously beyond their reach right now and forever. They would have to terminate the two of them when they would return, perhaps they could achieve their plans before having to fight those two, with the power obtained like that, even those two would have no chance against them, even if that bastard John helped them.

It was more or less the perfect plan to follow with the maximum chances of success, so it was obvious why they were trying it. After all, it would not do to foolishly attempt to make a last desperate stand against forces which were so determined to defeat them. They had odds of winning, but there was nothing certain and they didn't want to tempt fate like that. Still, even this plan had its odds of failure if they couldn't maintain their defenses, he knew that all too well, but he wasn't afraid of that, he was certain they could pull it off.

The other three were just as confident in this matter, for the simple fact that they believed that there was no way that they could ever be defeated. They had endured so much and they would endure whatever else was thrown at them and they would be successful, no matter what. They had fought throughout the ages, deceiving and manipulating people for their needs, even serving people when they needed to, but they had always worked for their own agenda.

Little did they know about what was coming against them…

--

As soon as they got their data, the meeting was once again in progress back on the flag ship of the Sanctuary fleet. The drones encountered minimal problems from the base and all reported back more or less useful information. So, it was time to see what they had and get down there to crush their enemies once and for all.

"The base has almost no defenses of its own… only the swarms of clones and Evas are actually defending it." Asuka commented while looking over the data reported by the drones.

"It seems like it." Misato said while doing the same thing as Asuka. "They're evenly distributed and there are a lot of them too. It won't be easy because of those numbers and we have a snowball's chance in hell to take pot shots at the base with all those AT fields in the way. We'll have to take out a lot of those Evas and clones so that they can't protect the base with their fields simply because they're there. We'll also have to keep those ugly flying beasts away from the ships…"

"We'll be able to take care of that issue." One of the officers in charge with a large group of mechs said.

"Well, simple plans are the best." Misato said continuing to look over the data, there wasn't much to take into account regarding the base in itself. "So here's what we'll do. I want the mechs to keep those Evas away, focus only on them and on staying alive out there. Don't bother to actually take them out, it's to much of a hassle, unless you have a really good shot at it. Still, mostly I want the ships to use their superior fire power on their forces to take out especially the Evas. The clones will either attempt to take out the mechs, in which case we change fire on them or they'll attempt to take us out, in which case let's hope that the shields hold out along with the armor. Also, we'll be rotating, so no one ship stays too long under fire, that way they won't even get through the shields since we still have the longest range and they can't exactly follow us to keep firing on the same ships."

"Seems simple enough, but what about me?" Asuka asked, she didn't have any preferences as to what she would do, just as long as those bastards got what was coming for them.

"Well, you'll be down there with the mechs, try to take out as many Evas as you can, but don't try to attack the base to get those guys, we don't know where they are and the enemy has too great numbers to ensure that we can cover you properly." Misato said as she looked over a tactical display, she really hoped that Asuka would stick to the plan, she had witnessed a lot of changes in the girl, but she had no idea how they applied to the battlefield. "We'll go after them after we get rid of the goons. Now, I want some brain storming about the overall mech tactics."

"Well, we group them up in teams, five members each and each team will harass an Eva and cover one another." The Black Knight replied, him being the local expert in mech tactics due to John's training. "It will prevent the Evas from isolating any of them and working like that would increase efficiency."

"Sounds good enough to me." Misato said, hoping that the Black Knight was as good as his reputation said he was. "Ok, I also want our support ships to try to scan the base while also keeping a constant surveillance on the enemy forces. I want to be able to know what they're doing in real time no matter where on the battlefield. I want the cloak ships to stay in the back and project their shields up front to lessen the assault on the front ships. I hope that this will be a short battle, but I have no idea exactly how resilient those bastards are."

"They didn't seem too tough to me, but I have different methods than the rest of you or the ship's cannons." Asuka said, thinking about her previous encounters with these strange new versions of the Eva series, at a certain level they were better, at least in the weapon department, but they still seemed less resilient compared to a more traditional Evangelion. "I wish I could say that I know how they'll react to your weapons, but I have no idea."

"Don't worry, all of our weapons were designed to fight against things with AT fields, from the mechs to the flag ship." The Black knight replied, sharing his insight on Sanctuary weapons, which were based on the weapons developed in the great war back on the Old Earth. "The problem is that we haven't had the chance to use them against anything else except those clones back in Tokyo-2."

"It's still better than nothing." Misato said, hoping that they wouldn't have any problems. This situation reminded her of the war with the angels, since they were often forced to work with untested equipment to some extent. "Unless anyone has any ideas, I suggest that we get this show on the road. As soon as everything is ready, we go right down on them as fast as we can. I just hope that they can't launch with us in the way…"

Everyone left from the room to prepare for the upcoming battle, hopefully, the first and only battle of the Sanctuary fleet, against the evil left behind by the wars of the Old Earth. This was in a way, the moment of truth.

--

The Kaworu clones and their monstrous Evangelion counterparts were standing guard patiently, expecting an attack at any moment. They didn't have to wait long, the whole fleet descended from orbit at high speed, the air burning around their shields, but not damaging them. It looked as if an apocalyptic rain of meteors was coming down on the small SEELE base. The Evas opened their wings and most of them took of as the clones readied their heavy weapons and raised their AT fields in a combined effort to protect the base from the attack.

The ships stopped quite high in the atmosphere, all of them pointing down as they opened fire on the upcoming Evangelions. From the ships swarms of war mechs flew out towards the Evas, all of them lead by a raging Asuka who was more like dropping than actually flying, scythe end of her weapon first. The first Eva that got in her way was split in two despite the fact that it used a large sword like weapon to attempt to block the attack.

Asuka spread her avatar's wings suddenly and with her AT field she literally stopped in the air while swinging her weapon and impaling one of the Eva through its left wing with the spear end. Before the Eva could pull itself free from the attack, Asuka used her powers to fry the Evangelion to a crisp, it's S2 engine exploding up front and threw of course a couple of other Evas. She then proceeded to blast the crap out of two other Evas that were distracted by the mechs, two cross flares obliterated them, leaving no trace behind, not even ashes.

She was then hit by a rain of smaller attacks from the clones bellow, but the attacks had no chance to pierce through her AT field. Asuka wasn't really the target, since the clones were not programmed idiotically enough to imagine that they could harm her even if they could get through her AT field. The problem was that she was in their way and it was hard to not hit something as big as an Eva if it wasn't moving.

Obviously Asuka had no way of knowing that and took the attack personally, so she sent two more cross blasts, only that this ones hit the combined AT field. The field managed to hold, but the whole base shook under the assault and several clones collapsed on their knees because of the strain. The Evas instantly received orders to prioritize her, but that wasn't as easy as it seemed because the teams of war mechs were doing their jobs pretty well in this situation.

"I'll show you bastards!" Asuka screamed in her avatar, and it screamed with her, the yell coming out as a monstrous voice that was both her voice and that of the Evangelion. If the Evas could have felt fear, they would have ran long ago from the battlefield.

Asuka did indeed show the Evas what she was capable of when two of them charged at her with a third trying to come from behind. She used her weapon with one hand, holding it in her left as he parried the attack from one of them. At the same time, she used her right wing as a giant blade to deflect the hit from the second and swoop in to catch it by the neck with her right hand. Before the third could strike Asuka pushed back the first one in a spinning motion and with the same move she placed the second Eva in the way of the attack.

The second Eva took the attack of the third counterpart right in chest, partly cracking its S2 as the armor and flesh covering it was torn by the blade wielded by its counterpart. Asuka had already released it and then blasted it in the back knocking it into the third, forcing them to fall in a tangled mess. That gave her just enough time to parry the second strike from the first Eva and then to blast its head and neck of with her powers. By the time the other two managed to recover and turn their attention back to her, she already launched a cross blast that turned them into nothing.

All this, took only a few moments, in the madness that begun, Asuka was moving much faster than any human could conceive and with the support of the fleet and mechs, the Evas couldn't use the advantage of their vast numbers to take her down, she was far to good for them, this time, she couldn't loose.

--

Toji and Kensuke were both in the same mech team and even though Toji was more or less assigned as team leader, both of them came up with ideas depending on the situation. The mechs had to be far more careful compared to Asuka, their AT fields weren't as strong and their armor couldn't take an N2 mine and survive without a scratch like she could.

The fire from the clones was dangerous and one direct hit in the main body from any of the Evas and they were toast. Still, they were faster and smarter than those things, and they had to capitalize on that advantage as much as possible, otherwise they were pretty much dead in this fight. Also, they couldn't take down an Eva in one hit, it took quite a lot of hits from their ranged weapons to impress one of those things, their real tactic against an Eva was to tie it up and then chop it to pieces with their melee weapons. That was pretty hard, as in impossible, to do without landing, and they couldn't exactly land in the ocean or in the base.

"Man, this is crazy!" Toji yelled over the com as he avoided the shots from an Eva while sending back some of his own. He was acting as bait for said Eva to distract it from what his team mates were planning. He had volunteered for the job and started acting before anyone could complain. It wasn't as if you had much time to stay and think things through in these conditions, it was pretty much do or die right now. Not that anyone besides Kensuke would ever complain about his actions right now. Well… there was Hikari, but she would never know unless something went wrong right? Which he would make sure that it wouldn't happen.

Tell me about it! Kensuke replied. The four mechs that were in the team with Toji arrived behind the Eva and harpooned its wings, tying it up. It began to fall and they strained to keep it up, they didn't really have the power to keep it up for long, just enough for Toji to sweep by and cut its wings out, letting it to fall on the base like a rock. It wouldn't kill it, unless some of the ships or Asuka focused on it while it fell, but it would still hit the AT field and weaken it.

The clones couldn't form holes in it for the Eva because they risked to be hit by the ships, which would surely target some of them, meaning that the field would overall get weaker than what it would happen if it just took a hit from a falling Eva. So, said Eva, along with others that fell prey to similar tactics hit the AT field like a boulder, even if it didn't do what you could call much damage, combined with the stray shots the field received, hits from the ships and Asuka's occasional cross blast when she felt particularly offended by the fire from the base mean that the clones were getting really strained and it was only a matter of time until they broke through and started returning them to nothing as they were supposed to be in the first place.

Still the Sanctuary forces were not without their losses, the mechs were steadily being destroyed in the fight, guaranteeing the pilot's death, unless the mech was just damaged and could retreat to one of the ships for repairs if possible or complete removal from battle. Also, the ships were taking hits and only Misato's rotation tactic and the buffering shield projected by the unused cloak ships prevented them from taking actual damage to their armored hulls.

--

Misato was watching all this from the command deck of the flag ship, she was surprised that the damn AT field that protected the base was still up, despite their attacks. Still, she noticed one thing during the fights, the most damage to it was created by Asuka's cross blasts for some reason. She had no idea why, but the fact was still there.

Also, she had been studying the enemies tactics in the little time that passed and she observed one thing, this wasn't the kind of defensive that attempted to push the enemy back or defeat them, these forces were trying to buy time for something. They were more concerned with keeping the base undamaged than actually doing damage to the attackers. With those kind of tactics, Misato assumed that SEELE didn't need much time to get ready for whatever they were planning regarding their escape.

That meant only one thing, they had to speed this thing up and focus on the base, otherwise who knew what could happen. After all, these things were all just a large amount of cloned flesh without the lead bastards behind them, so if they died, the fight was over as well. At least that was what everyone hoped the case was.

"Asuka pull back between the ships, there's a change of plans!" Misato said over the com, she had an idea that would hopefully even the odds for them, but in these things, there were no guarantees. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try.

(What do you want Misato?) Asuka asked only slightly irritated by the request. Misato could clearly see Asuka cleaving another one of the Evas before pulling back amongst the ships. Asuka would have been more annoyed before, but she wasn't the same person and she knew that unlike during the war with the angels, Misato was actually gathering useful information upon which you could actually act.

"They're just buying time, we need to do something about it and as weird as it seems, you have the hardest punch out of everything we have here." Misato replied while checking some of her data, just in case she missed something from the reports she kept receiving. "So, we're switching fire completely on the base and you're helping us take that damn AT field down and make sure that it stays like that."

(Ok, you want me to fire in any way in particular or just let all hell break loose?) Asuka inquired as she took her firing position.

"The cross blasts seemed particularly effective on it, aside from that, just hit them as hard as you can!" Misato said, acting more on her instincts than on anything else right now. Though, those instincts were pretty useful before, so she knew when to trust what she felt.

(You're the boss.) Asuka replied with a shrug, she couldn't really see the difference caused by her attacks.

Misato also made sure that all the ships changed their firing pattern, now they were supposed to ignore the Evas completely and fire through them and hit the AT field, preferably hitting the same spot as often as possible. Hopefully under this firing regime, the field wouldn't last long and they could blast the hell out of the base and those damn clones, hopefully also killing the bastards that were controlling them.

She noted that Asuka alternated between cross blasts and showers of lighter fire channeled through her avatar's wings. While the cross blasts did damage to the field itself, the other form of attack seemed to occasionally pass through the field and hit some of the clones if any were in the way, injuring them or even killing them if the shots landed on their heads.

Again she noted that Asuka was doing the most damage, which was probably due to her powers that were off the scale anyway, even if she couldn't use them up fully. So she had hopes that they could win before those old bastards could escape. This was her last chance to avenge her father, those men were responsible for his death in Second Impact, for her trauma after that and so many other crimes. She had no idea how great the sins of these men were, but she was going to make sure that they were never going to commit any kind of act.

They were past redemption…

--

"What do you think about all of this Keel?" SEELE 02 asked as he looked over what was going over on the battlefield through a screen on the ship. They were going through the last stages of their launch preparations and they passed the time looking at the fight outside. Even if the attackers could break through the AT field in record time, the base itself should be able to hold long enough for them to escape.

"I think that they have no idea just how futile their efforts are right now." Keel said also checking his displays, he wasn't worried by these circumstances, he knew the facts and he was familiar enough with the effects of the weapons used against them. The original five may have never known how to produce weapons like those, but they were aware of what they could do, so they knew how long the base could handle the attack. "I suppose that they have quite good ideas and tactics, too bad that they are blind and fight for the wrong cause."

"Indeed." Number 04 noted. "They would have been useful servants in our plan and they could have had such glorious positions in our new order. Still, they are without vision and incapable of seeing the true brilliance of our designs."

"So it was fated." 02 replies, not bothering with the battle at the time, there were no surprises, it was to some extent quite predictable. "If humans were all intelligent enough to understand what we were trying to achieve, we wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. We would have reached our goals long ago, back on the Old Earth, without destroying our glorious civilization. We wouldn't have had to work with these lesser human versions that cover this planet and struggle for so long without our powers to aid us."

"We still need patience brothers." Keel cautioned, last time they were in a hurry, meaning the deal with Third Impact, they only managed to get themselves screwed in the process. "It will be a long time before we would be able to return to this planet and finish our work. At the very least a century of work awaits us, if not more."

"It looks like they realized what we're trying to pull off." SEELE 03 noted while observing then new firing pattern of the ships. He realized that of all the forces against them, the only wildcard was the avatar that was opening fire along with the ships, it was the only unkown. "Accursed Second Child with Lilith's powers… Even dead our old nemesis torments us, at this rate the AT field won't last long and our grounded forces won't last much longer after it fails."

"It's irrelevant." Keel said. "Breaking through all of our defenses will achieve nothing, we are almost ready to leave."

The ships systems began to come online as the four foul men prepared to control it through their powers. Despite Misato's best efforts, they had more than enough space to fly through the fleet because of the rotation tactics, they only had to wait for the right moment to make their move and then, nothing would ever stop them again.

--

Asuka was getting sick of all this shooting, they weren't doing damage fast enough, that was when an idea struck her, it was a brilliant idea as far as she was concerned and it was easy enough to use. The source of the AT field were the clones, so if you got rid of enough of those, then the AT field would be destroyed and they could move on and hopefully end this battle already. She knew that they didn't have time to lose, she had a very bad feeling about all of this, so she had to act, no time for anything else.

She pulled her wings back, folding them over her back and began to descend head down straight for the base. She used her powers to accelerate her descent, allowing her to move at least three times as fast as she should have been able to in those conditions. She also channeled energy in the spear end of her weapon and when she hit the AT field she sliced right though it, striking the base like missile.

She broke through a few layers of armor before she could stop, she wasn't damaged, but her weapon was completely trashed as a result, not that she was going to need it in what was going to follow. She jumped back to the surface and released energy as two horizontal cross blasts from her extended arms destroying clones on her left and right, the distraction causing the AT field to collapse, forcing the clones to change strategies to avoid being splattered by the fire from the ships.

You should have warned us about that Asuka! Misato's angry voice came over the com. Misato didn't like what happened, even though she knew how to take advantage of this new development, she didn't appreciate Asuka's lack of discipline. The girl had acted without the slightest hint of a warning and who could say what could go wrong with that plan of hers.

"I think it was time for action not idle chatter." Asuka replied as her avatar rose proudly from the middle of burning debris and ashes. It looked like some sort of demonic creature as it rose from the earth with its burning red eyes and red armor as if bathed in blood. The flames around it did not hinder the beast, they only seemed to make it even more fierce against before its soulless enemies, and even their minds could perceive fear now that she was so close to them. "Too bad I messed up the scythe with that one, I'll have to get a new one later."

With that said she took off and headed back for the Evas, it would be a waste of power and effort to focus on the clones right now when the mechs needed help with the Evas and when the ships could handle the clones with better efficiency anyway. So she jumped on the back of an unsuspecting Eva while it was distracted by one of the mech teams and proceeded to rip it apart with her bare hands. In a strange way, it seemed oddly satisfying to do something like that, though she didn't really have time to think about things like that right now.

SEELE was doomed as far as she was concerned, they were going to pay!

--

"That child is far more dangerous than we have anticipated." SEELE 03 mused as the ship was charging up for its initial blast off. It would be only a few moments until they would be off and nothing would be able to threaten them.

"As I said it is irrelevant, there is nothing she can do about what will happen." Keel said dismissively, as far as he was concerned, the game was already over and Sanctuary had lost, since nothing could stop the launch now. "It's time to leave, let us depart brothers!"

The ships was a rather large contraption, it was basically an entire kilometer long, as quarter of this length being used just for the engines. The ship was designed to be large enough to carry anything the four men needed to start their work while also being able to move at extreme speeds and then when far enough from the Solar system, to be able to fold space and jump to their destination.

This ship was based on the technology of Old Earth, while SEELE didn't have the archives that John did, they still managed to scavenge enough to build this thing in a hurry. Its power source was an S2 engine which was in the center of the machine, it provided all the power it would ever need and it meant that only the four of them could ever control the thing. It was controlled through a direct mental connection as further assurance in case someone that knew how to deal with that kind of technology managed to get on board.

The engines were nothing conventional, since they were designed to work in places where the normal laws of physics did not apply and thus required a soul to command them. They generated energy that didn't exactly push the ship ahead as it happened to normal engines instead, it moved the ship, it forced it to change its position in time and space and thus move along to where ever you needed to move. It also had another trick, it could move in bursts at incredible speeds, allowing the ship to jump from 0 to near light speed in an instant for a certain period of time. Enough for them to jump out of orbit and out of the range of the Sanctuary ships, then continue to fly away until they could fold out and permanently be out of their reach, until it was too late.

The base almost split in half, revealing the ship just as the engines performed their burst, if the ship would have had exhausts like any normal creation, it would have probably burned the whole base to ashes to obtain the energy to move like that. As it was, just the friction with the ship's shields caused any unwanted reactions and the explosive displacement of air that caused something beyond your normal sonic boom.

--

For Misato, it seemed to happen in slow motion, the base opened up and the ship seemed to explode out of it. After all of their work, it seemed that they were doomed to fail due to this unexpected turn of events. She wanted to scream, knowing that there was no ship in its way, nothing that could stop it from its escape.

'All of this work, all of our plans and efforts… failed… I'm sorry…' She thought, she didn't know what to do anymore given the current situation, presuming that she could have even reacted to something that happened so fast.

She might have shed a tear or two for her failure, they didn't know the full extent of their failure, this might have been more than a simple escape, since they didn't really know what resources SEELE still had, for all she knew, they could be going to initiate yet another impact or something. If everything wouldn't have happened so fast, Misato would have shed that tear.

Something still knew…

--

Asuka didn't even notice the base opening up, she was far too busy with the opposition. Still, she felt it when the ship became active and her superhuman senses and reflexes saved her from ending up on a direct collision course with it as it exploded through their blockade. She watched as the ship passed right next to her, her senses allowing her to keep up with what was happening despite the speed at which it was happening. Asuka screamed as it happened in rage, and… something roared back from across the void, answering her call of anger.

"Damn you! Damn you to hell! You damn sneaky bastards… DAMN COWARDS!!"

She wanted to stop the bastards, but she knew that without Lilith's full powers coursing through her, she couldn't do that. The bastards were going to escape, it just wasn't fair after all of their efforts. She felt angrier than ever before, but it seemed that something was even angrier…

--

For Toji and Kensuke, it just happened, they didn't have the sensors to keep up with an event like that, they didn't have their powers developed enough either. For them it was just the same as it was for the rest of the fleet, something burst from the ground at incredible speed apparently with no regard to anything that happened to them.

Toji had been close enough to the ship's path to lose the left arm from his mech, ripped from him by the current generated all while he was thrown around through the air like a rag doll. He wasn't the only one that had that problem, many others, including Evas were just as thrown around by the passage of the ship. Something that big moving at such a speed had a drastic effect around it in a planet's atmosphere.

'What the hell is going on?!' Was all that Toji could think while he was thrown around, sensing that his mech was occasionally colliding with this or that. Still, he felt that something was terribly wrong at that time, he could feel it in his bones.

Kensuke had the fortune of being farther away than Toji, so he was only thrown around instead of receiving any kind of severe damage directly because the ship past him. Also, he managed to understand that something big moved at speeds that shouldn't be normal in these conditions, it was almost as if it was shot out of a massive particle accelerator. Still it was pretty obvious that there was no such thing on the base and that whatever it was that passed them wasn't some sort of projectile. He also barely noticed that the life signs of one of their team mates were simply terminated, instantly, with no sort of damage warning anything.

'This is not good…' Kensuke thought, realizing that said team mate must have been in the path of whatever just passed them and that he must have been completely splattered before he even knew that he was going to die. At least it was painless.

--

Inside the ship, things were being looked at from a very different perspective, for obvious reasons. As far as the four inside were concerned, things couldn't look any better for them, everything was going to be fine. At last, a clear victory, at last, there was no last minute failure, it was the first stage of what they wanted to accomplish, it was more than enough though.

The four men were congratulating themselves for a well done job, the ship blasted through both their Evas and the mechs, anything that was in their way was crushed against the ship's shields. An instant later they were passing 

through the Sanctuary fleet which didn't even have time to target them. It was obvious to them that they had won, there was nothing that could stop them now.

They were dead wrong…

--

Before the ship, as it was passing through the Sanctuary fleet, a breach was formed in normal space and time, the breach then was enlarged in an instant, revealing what looked like a massive rift made of flaming blue energy. The source of the light was not the rift itself, but what came out of it. The powerful creature, surrounded by the same flames, floating on twelve wings of light roared in the void of space, the roar crossing through it despite the lack of air, being sensed by the soul directly, not by the ears. All that felt it knew that something very big was going to happen, and for four men, this signified a disaster like no other in their career so far.

The ships acceleration was too great and with that burst performed, it couldn't stop in time or change direction, presuming that the ones controlling it could have realized that something was wrong in time to do anything. It never stood a chance, it struck the barrier formed before it, a barrier formed of energy that should not be there and that defied any normal laws. The only thing that preventing the ship from being completely destroyed was the combination of energy shields and the desperate last minute defense raised by the four men within.

As the ship disintegrated, a beast managed to jump out and spread its wings, it was an Evangelion sized creature, but it fit the description of beast better than any of those before it. Its elongated head resembled something from an Alien movie, including the mouth parts, but it also had eight eyes, six were orientated to the front while the other two were positioned one on each side. It had four arms, with three fingers each, all covered in dark armor, which seemed to shine somewhat in the light projected by its foe and that of the sun beyond them both. Somewhat from the shoulders, a pair of insect like arms rose tipped with deadly claws which looked capable of shredding through the toughest of armors. Bellow them, extending from the possible position of the shoulder blades were the before mentioned wings, they were large and leathery, more resembling the wings of demonic creatures from man's nightmares than the wings of any animal. Its whole body was covered in black armor, black as the night but with an organic feel as if the creature had grown the armor, which was most likely the case. The feet of the creature were formed after a somewhat reptilian design, made so that they were tipped with claws at everyone of their three toes.

In it were four evil men, men that sought power far beyond their comprehension, a power that would most likely forever elude them because of their own greed and obsession. They had joined their powers in the same construct, which had been created from the time that their fourth member died, knowing that when the time would come, they would have to fight as one against the challenge before them. All of their plans so far had failed, this was truly their last chance to achieve anything with all of their designs, if only they could defeat and consume the power of this particular foe.

Before them stood a similar construct in size, but nowhere near as revolting. It was covered in blue armor with streaks of red over its chest that highlighted the red core in the middle. Its whole body was surrounded by an aura of power that was partly manifesting in the physical plain as a blue fire with occasional bursts of what looked like blue lightning around said aura. It was floating in space maintaining its position with the help of twelve enormous wings of the same blue energy from within, all looking like incredible insect like wings formed from a web of light, screens of almost transparent energy forming between the "strings". Though its most particular feature right now were its eyes, which blazed with such anger and power that it was a wonder that the monster before it was still alive. All that anger came from the boy within, boy who had been used time and again in the schemes of men greater than himself in the social scale, but so much bellow him in the nobility of the soul.

Evangelion Unit-01 had arrived on the battle field pissed beyond belief and it was directing that anger at SEELE…

To be continued…


	12. Chapter 12

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 12: Battle of the titans

AN: Sorry for the late update, explanations and apologies at the end.

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

Asuka was the first to notice what had happened and decided to act, as far as she was able to look at things, there was only one real course of action in this situation. They had to keep the Evas away from Shinji do that he could fight with that thing that came out of the ship. In other words he would need time and space for maneuvers, therefore they had to make sure that the Evas weren't going anywhere from where they were right now. She also knew that it was unlikely that Misato would realize this in time, or anyone else for that matter since she was the only one who was capable of this kind of high speed thinking at the moment.

"Listen up everyone!" She practically yelled in the com. "Shinji just joined the fight, he's up there fighting, we have to keep these damn Evas away from him, so everyone stop staring and start fighting!"

As if her voice broke some sort of spell, the battle resumed, the Evas seemed to be just as eager to keep them from aiding Shinji in his battle, which was all fine and dandy as far as Asuka was concerned. She wasn't sure about what those four were capable of, but she knew that Shinji wouldn't let himself be defeated easily. There was another reason for which she wasn't really worried at the moment, Shinji seemed to be angrier than she was able to imagine. It wasn't the typical blind anger either, he had that type of anger that was directed, that made you focus on the enemy with all your senses and everything else fades, when only that particular enemy was what mattered, everything else was in your way.

So, Asuka hoped that he could handle the challenge and then return to her. All she could do was make sure that nothing else got in his way, with the aid of the Sanctuary forces. Now that the clones weren't a factor, they could pull back and fight the Evas without any other interventions from ground level. That was a good thing for the mechs as well as for the ships since it meant that they didn't have to dodge or absorb any extra hits.

That was no concern for Asuka, she charged at the closest Eva, fully intending to take them all apart as quickly as possible so that she could go and help Shinji against SEELE. She didn't know how much she could help, but she assumed that if she landed a few hits in their backs while they were fighting they would be distracted enough for Shinji to charge in and knock them out or kill them, depending on what his plans were. Though, Asuka doubted that

Shinji would ever want to kill anyone, even as angry as he was now. She would be able to do the job since she had trained as a soldier far longer than he did, but she also knew that he wouldn't want her to stain her hands with the blood of another human being. Even if in these four cases, you had to wonder if they were still human after all they did.

In a way Asuka was surprised about how detached she was in this whole situation, it was as if the battle was going on around her and her avatar worked while she was just watching and could simply spend her time thinking. The sensation only seemed to become stronger as time passed and the battle was progressing and she calmly noted that she was moving faster and faster and that it took a lot less effort to take down each individual Eva as the fight worn on. It was almost as if their enemy was becoming weaker, but the knew the truth instantly, they weren't getting weaker, she was getting stronger.

It was then that in her mind a vision formed, the vision was that of the small sphere of energy that Lilith gave to her seemingly so long ago. It seemed out of her reach, but Asuka struggled to take it in her hands, to grasp it and use it, instinctively knowing that it was the way her mind processed her attempt to take hold of the full power that she possessed right now. She made the lunge towards the sphere…

--

Toji's first reaction when he heard Asuka's voice was to pull back, his mech was seriously damaged and there was no way that he was going to be able to keep up fighting in these conditions. He also became aware of the fact that one of their team mates was declared dead and that the ships computers were already reorganizing the teams to compensate for the drops in numbers.

Back on the Old Earth, a lot of things were automated when regarding combat, of course, the technology surrounding computers during those times was also mixed with tricks developed through the usage of AT fields, making computers far more resilient than they had ever been or what they were in these times. You could incapacitate a ship completely, make sure that it had all of its weapons stripped clean of its hull, punch several holes from one side to the other and irradiate it so hard that any human would die in a matter of moments if exposed to that kind of amount and the computers would still function at full capacity. The ships were designed to depend on their human crews to ensure that certain functions could ever work, but a ship without a crew was pretty much useless anyway.

Toji knew these facts like all the soldiers that were trained to serve in the Sanctuary army, he probably knew more than he should know for the period of time he had been taught, but the fact that these people transferred knowledge directly in your mind allowed you to learn a lot of things in a much shorter time than it was normally possible. He also knew that he could rely on the computer to provide him some good options in case of an emergency and that when it said retreat, it was a good idea to do so.

As he landed in one of the ships he couldn't help but wonder if everything would be alright, could Shinji really handle the fight with those four all by himself. He felt like shit, he hated being helpless while his friends were forced to fight just so that he could survive. People were out there fighting, dying for this cause so to speak and he was forced once more to stand down to watch from the side lines. At least now he knew that he had tried, it wasn't much consolation, but it was better than what he had done during the angel wars, which was to cower away in a shelter while everything went to hell around him.

--

Misato was another one of those people that was snapped out of her stupor when Asuka yelled over the com for everyone to get their ass in gear. She knew that as a commanding officer she had her own role to perform during all of this. The tactical situation had changed, new tactics were needed since their objectives were now very different from what they were before. Now they had to keep the enemy Evas from leaving the area and interfering in Shinji's fight with the members of SEELE.

So she gave new orders, reorganizing the ships to form a defensive perimeter and to make sure that they were out of the clones range, they didn't need any more problems than what they already had to face, the Evas were enough. The cloak chips were ordered to cover retreating mechs from the front line while she also changed the tatics of their support ships which were now meant to ensure that every mech that could be repaired would be, they needed to keep as many of the machines up and running for now to make sure that the Evas were taken out safely without receiving unnecessary damage to the ships. If even one Eva managed to cling itself to one of the ships, that ship was royally screwed.

Misato thanked any and all deities that might be listening for Shinji's incredibly well timed intervention, even if she didn't exactly believe in any gods herself. She had no idea what had happened, but she was glad that it did and she wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth. The only question she had was how did it happen? Coincidences or not, the odds of Shinji appearing right in front of that ship like that and stopping it seemed impossible.

Then again, that kid seemed to have impossible written all over his life, especially when dealing with Evas. 'I hope you can handle the challenge Shinji, we'll make sure that you have fair fight, hold on up there and we'll try to come and help you.' Misato thought.

--

Meanwhile, even before the fight restarted itself bellow, the two warriors seemed to study one another, without making a move. That was when Unit-01 spoke, its voice carrying through the void as if space and time itself allowed it to cross, despite the laws of physics, it was a very strange voice, the voice of a teenager overlapped by the voice of a monster, the combined effect being quite fearsome. Both voices were angry, both voices were determined, one being frightening because of the power it seemed to hold, the other because of its nature of an unleashed monster that promised to bring pain and suffering to all that listened to it.

"So, it's come to this, you four are all that's left."

The four decided to leave Keel to handle this and he was forced to broadcast his thoughts as he was unable to perform the same trick that Unit-01 or Shinji Ikari seemed to use, the distinction seemed rather difficult at the moment. As much as the four would have wanted to be unafraid, the fact was that they were terrified by the monster before them, but they weren't the type of people who would simply roll over and die.

"It's true then, you have finally unleashed the power of our former mentor, it's all yours to command…" Keel said. "That's quite impressive, now you know what it is to have true power. You should be able to understand now why we want to finish our plans, aside from the power we would have obtained, surely you realized that the more power you have, the more you can achieve."

"Don't waste your time trying to convince me that the foul plan which Adam started so long ago actually has any value." Unit-01/Shinji replied. "The only reason why I didn't attack you from the moment you escaped from that doomed ship is the fact that I want to give you one last chance to surrender peacefully, I never wanted to fight, I'll never want to fight, so I want to give you this chance to get out of this without unnecessary struggles between us. Didn't this war last for long enough?"

"You really don't understand do you child? You're trying to stop us from bringing humanity to perfection!" Keel roared back, though compared to how Shinji sounded, he seemed to be a weak whisper. "There would be no more suffering or death for all eternity! We would all live forever in our own heaven as gods! Why can't you understand that you stupid child?!"

"You're the one that's stupid!" Shinji/Unit-01 roared, causing SEELE's construct to flinch and move back a little. "There is no end to evolution, there is no end for the struggle in this life! What you'd bring would be a life devoid of not only suffering but also individuality and any real form of happiness. It would be a waste of time and it would be only a matter of time until that existence too would be over and then ALL of humanity would die. After that, there would be no more humans and humankind would be finished forever. Can you understand you heartless monster?"

"You are wrong you foolish child!" Keel replied. "Surrender that power to us and we will show you the truth!"

Unit-01's eyes narrowed, it's aura of radiating power seemed to become even more intense as it drew its weapon from its back. The weapon once knows as the Lance of Longinus was still in its sword form with its two blades, but there was a difference now to it, a large blue sphere was merged with it where the two blades split off from the handle. The crystal, similar to an Evangelion's core began to glow brightly and the twin blades were covered in charged blue flames that radiated power. Unit-01 held the massive sword with one hand as its left hand seemed to develop fierce claws at the tips of its fingers that soon seemed to be formed out of energy.

"I would have wanted to avoid this, but you leave me no choice!" Shinji/Unit-01 said. "You want my power you cowards? Come and get it! I'll give you more than you bargained for!"

"You'll pay for your insolence you brat!" Keel screamed as their monstrous construct charged forward.

Shinji doesn't reply to that, instead he swings the sword which in turn releases a wave of energy towards the charging monster. Keel was in control, the others were keeping their eyes open and providing power, so he was the one that was actually fighting in this battle. He wasn't arrogant enough to underestimate his young opponent, so he changed the direction of his charge and maneuvered downwards. Normally, that maneuver would have rendered the SEELE construct open to attack, simply because they would be unable to see what was going on for a few moments. Still the extra eyes were designed specifically for that purpose.

The end result was that Keel managed to see Unit-01 charging at him with the sword leading the attack. So he parried the attack with the left claw, but immediately he discovered that he needed both of his left arms to support the claw, otherwise the boy would push it right in their body and break it or the armor. On the other side, they clashed their right claw with his left arm. Still, Shinji did something rather unexpected, instead of deflecting the blow in some way, he let the claw pierce Unit-01's palm and the bladed mantis like claw went trough the palm all the way to the its joint.

What happened next Keel never expected, Unit-01 clenched its left fist before he could even thing and the claws it formed earlier at its finger tips severed the larger claw at the joint. Shinji then pulled back the fist with the claw still stuck in it and attempted to punch his adversary, but Keel managed to block with both of the beasts right arms. That was when the remaining SEELE members noticed that they had a slight problem, Unit-01, even in these conditions was threatening to overpower them with its left fist. Adding more troubles for them, it was using their absorbing the severed claw. Not to mention that the radiated energy was slowly but surely grinding their own defenses. In other words, this kind of close quarters combat would only lead to their defeat.

Keel pulled their construct back all the while releasing several smaller blasts of energy to distract their adversary hopefully buying enough time to come up with a different plan of action. It was soon obvious that Shinji had no intention to do such a thing and while creating a suitably shaped AT field to block the weak attack, he absorbed the claw that was initially stuck in his left hand and transformed it into an organic blade. All the while the chest plate on Unit-01 seemed to open like some sort of gates revealing the flesh beneath. The core was glowing, obviously working at full strength, but that wasn't the only thing that Keel saw.

The flesh bubbled and formed some strange spike like growths, only when they were launched towards them a great speed did Keel realize that those things weren't spikes but organic missiles. He raised an AT field to stop the volley of projectiles then channeled energy through the beasts eyes and released a beam of concentrated energy towards Unit-01. Shinji used the blade of his massive sword to deflect the hit without wasting energy with an AT field as he began to charge towards the SEELE construct. Keel waited until Unit-01 was in a certain range before releasing an energy lance from each of the four arms of the monster.

Though Shinji did have an AT field, the things were barely slowed down and slightly deviated from their initial targets. The ones that came from the constructs right arms struck Unit-01 in the left shoulder and left thigh, the ones from the left hit differently, the upper one grazed Unit-01's right cheek bone while the one from the lower hand hit the avatar in the right hip. The ones that hit went all the way through to the other side of the angry avatar.

Keel was shocked when the attack didn't even slow down Unit-01, it actually accelerated towards them and attacked with the sword. They attempted to dodge, but they were hit in the left shoulder in addition to loosing the left bladed arm. Still, Keel managed to pull back and the two opponents were once more sizing each other up from a safe distance. They were both regenerating but it was obvious that Shinji had the upper hand in that area due to Adam's powers. It seemed like they couldn't go for a long fight, they needed to win swiftly since the former Third Child had more raw power than the four of them combined.

At first they would have hoped that their experience would even things out or even give them the upper hand, but for some reason it looked like the he had received some sort of training or gained some sort of knowledge that allowed him to manipulate those powers as if he was born with them and used them for years. The four of them conversed in the relative safety of their construct, taking advantage of the fact that they could have any length of conversation in mere moments due to the fact that their minds were directly linked to one another.

'This is not going as expected…' Keel said to the others, what seemed like worry seeped through the transmitted thoughts. 'He's far more capable than we have anticipated, both because of his powers and his knowledge about how to use them. Something is amiss here.'

'Indeed, he also seems to be aware of our weakness, he's trying to make us waste energy, he must know that he can keep going longer than we can.' 03 said, analyzing the current situation, like all the others trying to find a way to turn things in their favor. 'Another fact that is bothersome is the fact that despite our initial form, he still has the upper hand in close quarters combat. The only solution would be to take him down from afar, but so far it seems like he's willing to take hits just to injure us. One more close call like that and the injury might be far more severe than loosing a bladed arm and a moderate shoulder injury.'

'We need to land a decisive blow on him, something that will cause a severe enough injury to make him reconsider his attempts to come close to us.' 04 said thoughtfully. 'Especially since so far our injuries are more severe and harder to heal than his are. If we were able to severe one of his arms of or something like that we might be able to get some advantage, not even he can re-grow his limbs that fast without getting some matter from another source like in the battle with the 14th.'

'We might be able to do just that…' Keel thought to the others, his thoughts creating the same effect as a self-assured smirk.

Shinji was having his own thoughts on the matter, he knew what their options were, it was quite simple to realize that they would aim for a serious injury. So, he had to make sure that the injury was not only less severe than what it would look like, but he also had to find a way to make sure that he gave back as well as he got. He had more time than they did, he could just as well stall them until the Sanctuary forces were done with the Evas and came to his aid, though he didn't really want to involve more people than he had to in this situation.

That was when Keel made his move, it seemed like it was the same energy lance move that they pulled before, but Shinji wasn't that naïve these days to think that they were trying the same trick twice like the angels did. He used the sword to deflect the ones that came towards his right side and dodged the lower one on the left side. Shinji allowed the one that was going to the upper left to strike him in the same spot as the first did in his left shoulder, going through the same hole and thus not causing any new injury.

The difference in the attack was shown then as the other three energy lances disappeared instantly, Keel redirected the energy to the single lance that struck something and detonated the energy lance, severing the left shoulder of completely, blood dissipating quickly before the wounds on both ends sealed, or in the case of the arm it looked like it ran out of blood to spurt.

Shinji grinned inside Unit-01, but he was careful to prevent the monster from copying his action, he didn't want the SEELE bastards to realize that he had a plan regarding what they did. Like in that fight with John so long ago, his arm was still usable due to the S2 engines in it. It was a dormant trap of which SEELE knew nothing. There was one difference from the fight though, this time Shinji allowed his arm to be severed on purpose, unlike his leg at that time. It was all part of the trap after all, things like this are necessary and easy to accomplish to those that know that certain personal sacrifices are necessary sometimes to achieve victory.

Keel charged, intending to take advantage of the fact that Unit-01 was now open on its left side, even if it would take three fists to block the sword, he would still have the fourth free to pummel and tear at his adversary and hopefully win this fight in a swift stroke. Shinji was pulling back though and Keel went on, not even noticing when the passed the severed arm. Said arm became active after gathering some energy and answered Shinji's summons, colliding with the back of the SEELE construct.

Keel stopped when something hit them in the back with quite a bit of strength, partly piercing the armor, that was when things went nuts. The arm didn't just strike at them, but it began a similar process to what the 16th did to Unit-00 during the angel wars, it began to contaminate the SEELE construct and because it started with the monster's spine, it began playing merry hell with the nerves in it, sending jolts of pain and senseless commands all over the place. The beast began twitching and contorting in agony as the foreign flesh spread in its own body, all of the SEELE members feeling the pain in their entire body.

--

Back at the battlefield with the SEELE Evas, something changed, or more like someone. Unit-02 stopped in mid air all of a sudden. Just as in her mind Asuka reached the sphere of red fire, the avatar began radiating power all around it. Two Evas that were too close when this happened were instantly turned into LCL, others that were a little farther away simply stopped acting and began crashing down, their soulless minds being crushed by the shock released by Asuka and her awakening powers. All the others began to react at a slower rate as their mind was affected by the shockwave of power.

Unfortunately for them, this was just the beginning. Unit-02's eyes began to glow with a power never seen before in the monstrous creature as it opened its mouth for the first time and let loose a fearsome roar. Along with the roar several whips of energy were released, the spread quickly and began slashing through the Evas like they weren't even there.

In a matter of moments, the number of Evas on the battlefield dropped to half the numbers they had before Asuka set loose her powers on them. Still, she didn't waste any more time with them and simply took off, she had every intention of joining Shinji up in space to fight or at the very least finish of those bastards. She could feel that Shinji felt her awakening and he seemed oddly satisfied for some reason or another, almost as if he was expecting it. That was when he really made contact with her, speaking for the first time in what seemed like ages.

'Asuka… It's good to see you again…' Shinji said in her mind, these words were accompanied by feelings, stronger than any words could ever express. 'I'd love to talk more, but we have to finish this first. I was hoping that you'd manage to awaken your powers for this battle. I'll need you to follow my lead, it's the best way to end things.'

Thoughts flooded Asuka's mind through the connection, knowledge about her powers and knowledge about his and what they could do together. Also, she received knowledge about what he wanted to do and she realized that despite the fact that the knowledge was more or less his, it came from somewhere else, but from where she didn't know. It didn't matter though, because she was soon fully aware of Shinji's plan and what he wanted to accomplish with it.

'Are you sure this is what you want Shinji? Wouldn't it be easier to kill them?' Asuka asked, slightly concerned about his plan. 'I know that you don't want to kill, but, you know I can.'

'No Asuka, I wouldn't want another human's blood on your hands either, even if they are so cruel and possibly evil.' Shinji replied sadly. 'Plus, this is the only way we can give them too a chance, since as my mother would say, all life is precious. Plus, this is the perfect punishment considering what they wanted to achieve.'

'I'll agree with that.' Asuka sent with a chuckle in the real world. 'Ok, I'll help you with this, I want to end this already and go back home.'

'Then let's do this.' Shinji replied with a strange amount of determination.

The two avatars positioned themselves on the sides of the SEELE construct as Shinji let go of the so called Lance of Longinus, that weapon had been designed by Adam a long time ago, it was meant to be a multi-purpose weapon, the lance form was it's most basic form and since only Adam could get it to change its shape SEELE used another biblical name for it. Even though you'd have to be a real idiot to believe that a weapon that large could actually be the real Lance of Longinus, especially since it was known that its tip was long since in a museum.

The weapon floated in front of the SEELE avatar as it was being immobilized in a field created by Shinji and Asuka with the aid of their combined powers. Each one of them had more raw power than the four men combined, but together they were literally invincible for the four rotten old men. They sat helplessly in their construct as they felt the power that swirled around them, yet they had no idea what the two Children wanted to do to them.

Adam's weapon floated above the core of the immobilized monster, then, each avatar, Unit-01 and Unit-02 raised their right hands and touched the blue core. Said core began to glow brightly and emit energy. SEELE's Eva began to convulse and all four men felt something very familiar, something which they never thought they would feel again, the same thing they felt before Third Impact, then, in an instant, they dissolved into LCL and their souls were drawn into the sword's core.

Outside the construct began to disintegrate and the Evas and clones that fought bellow ceased their activity as their masters were no longer able to command them in any way. All the Evas crashed to the ground and the clones simply stopped moving, simply standing around with vacant expressions on their faces. It looked like the fight was over.

--

Keel came to his senses, but he soon realized that he was literally nowhere and so were his other trusted companions. He didn't understand what was going on, especially since he realized that he wasn't in his body anymore and that where ever here was, he had no powers. His confusion only became greater when he saw who was standing before them, Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Sohryu, behind them stood their respective avatars surrounded by the light of their powers.

The two Children were the same as before, but at the same time different, he could see it, in Shinji's case the blue flames in his eyes were harder to notice because of his natural blue eye color, only the fact that they emanated light made you realized that something was odd. In Asuka's case, her new power was as obvious in her eyes as the sun is visible in the sky during the day, her irises being surrounded by red fire that also emanated light. The two of them stood before the confused old man as his companions also awakened and got to their feet.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Keel shouted in a demanding tone. Both Shinji and Asuka were visibly unimpressed by his outburst.

"Keel, you're hardly in a position from which you can make demands…" Shinji said with a tone and manner that reminded everyone of his father, he managed to bring out the same distaste and cold attitude the man had for the council, which further enraged Keel. "I'd be very careful in your position… Now… what do you want again?"

Keel had to force himself not to explode and shout at the insolent brat as he thought of the boy, but he was aware of two obvious facts. One, he was powerless and he was pretty sure that so were his companions, two, the two avatars behind the two children seemed real enough to crush them if the children wanted it to happen.

"I can assure you that we don't need them if we want to hurt you." Shinji said in the same unnerving manner.

"Yup, we can crush you like the worthless bugs that you are with a snap of our fingers here." Asuka added with her typical arrogant smirk. "You're literally forced to do anything we want or else, so be nice little bugs and ask your questions nicely."

"What is here?" The man usually hidden after the name SEELE 02 asked, knowing that Keel needed time to calm down. Both teens looked at him and gave all of them some eerie smiles.

"This is a version of what you four wanted." Shinji said, imitating his father's smirk, the one he used when things "went according to the scenario". "This is Instrumentality, brought about by me and Asuka. Since we have the powers of both Adam and Lilith, plus the so called Lance of Longinus, we could have caused the Fourth Impact at any time we wanted."

"Still, we've been through the Third Impact and we know that it brings many things, but not what you people think it would. I would better say that it's a big pile of crap and you four are bunch of retarded monkeys for wasting so much time and effort trying to both create it and then control it." Asuka said in her ranting voice. "Even Adam and Lilith, the ones we gained these powers from, realized that an Impact is NOT a good idea…"

"Of course, there's a little glitch that your four never thought about." Shinji said, still smirking. "We can use our powers to bring about the whole Instrumentality thing on a local level, or even specifically on certain individuals that we want to affect. In this particular case… you four."

The four stood there with shocked expressions, finally understanding what had happened to them, their souls had been sucked out of their body in the most brutal method by literally destroying their body and now they were about to be unified in the same way as Third Impact would have done, only that it would be just the four of them by the look of things. Keel was the first to realize that, by the look the two of them had, the two teens weren't done yet and there was more yet to this situation.

"You're right Keel, and yes, we can both read your thoughts perfectly here." Shinji said. "Here, you can have no secrets, you can wear no masks, there is only the undeniable truth. You are all scared beyond belief by this development."

"I bet they'd pee in their pants if they had real bodies right now." Asuka said with a snicker, Shinji also chuckled a bit.

"You four will become one, like you always wanted and you'll live in your own personal world." Shinji said, his smile becoming devilish this time, his avatar was grinning behind him, making the four men feel as if Death was smiling at them. "You'll exist in a hell of your own making instead of a heaven, of course, in this world, pain is just as fake as happiness so I doubt you have much to worry about. Also, instead of gaining powers, you'll loose all the power that you had, it's being drained as we speak. Just like you would have stolen our powers, we're taking yours, spreading them equally amongst ourselves, leaving you just as powerless as you were when you were born, or should I say like any normal men on this "New Earth"?"

The four were speechless, this was more or less the reversal of what they had always wished for, they were being damned to an eternal punishment. Keel fell to his knees in shock, no one else moving or doing anything. This was literally the end of all hope as far as he was concerned, they had failed beyond belief.

"Actually Shinji's not that cruel as to leave you guys without hope." Asuka said with a sigh. "If it were up to me, you would all be dead. I would have broken your personal AT fields and trashed your bodies, then I would have ensured some sort of terrible tortures until you were completely broken and then had you killed. Instead, you get this, not only that, but if you are able to truly change, then you will be released from your imprisonment."

"Though, I'm warning you." Shinji said switching to a grave tone, showing that he was deadly serious. "You have to really change, you have to change in your hearts in such a way that if you were in the real world, you'd never attempt to do what you did before no matter what. You'll come out without your powers, but young and able to choose new paths in your lives. This is the chance I am giving to you, the chance to change and make amends, a chance no one else will give you, the chance for redemption."

Keel nodded and got to his feet, wondering exactly what they had to do to escape from their prison and get revenge. Though, the look on the former Third Child's face seemed to say that there was no escape except for atoning for their sins. He was wondering about one thing though, something that didn't make any sense… How did the two learn to use their powers in such a manner as to create a small version of Instrumentality on their own in so little time?

"You'll have to earn your release for that one." Shinji replied before Keel could voice his question. "If you ever get out of here and we meet again, then I'll tell you, not a moment sooner. I honestly hope that all four of you find it in your hands to change and earn your release from this prison, in other words I hope that we will all meet again under better circumstances…"

"I'm not him, for all I care, you should all burn in Hell for all eternity." Asuka said as angrily as possible, her avatar roaring behind her. "I hope you never get out of here, I and many others will never forgive you, so you should thank Shinji for the rest of your worthless lives for this chance, because he's the only reason you have it…."

With that said, the four SEELE members were engulfed in bright white light and lost all sense of self, time and space, being taken in their own private version of Instrumentality with no choice whatsoever in the matter. All of them had their own thoughts on the matters, but the general theme was the same one, they were wondering how it could have gone so wrong, where did they make their mistakes.

--

In the real world, the monstrosity created by the four finished disintegrating as the souls were merged as one in the core of the sword. That would be their prison for as long as they needed to change the way they were, or until it was destroyed and they were released in death, this was the only way they would ever be free from their fate. If anything, the punishment fit the crime, an irony to what their goals were, since they have managed to complete Instrumentality, just not as they wanted too.

Unit-01 reattached its arm and then retrieved its weapon, the angry flames of its powers dissipated as their master calmed with the completion of his goals. The only thing that remained were the twelve wings that kept it stable in space. Before it Unit-02 simply floated, also extinguishing the flames of its own powers, its mistress being satisfied with the result, that and she didn't have anymore enemies to fight against. The battle was over, the war had been won and the final warriors from the Great War of the Old Earth had been taken care of.

Shinji and Asuka noticed that the Sanctuary fleet was heading for their position, having nothing left to fight after their stunt against SEELE. It wasn't long before they were both contacted and the face of a visibly relieved Misato Katsuragi greeted them both.

"Shinji, Asuka, finally…" Was all she was able to say, not knowing what else she could say in this situation. "It's good to see you again Shinji, you had us all worried back home."

"I'm glad to be back Misato…"Shinji replied in a tired voice. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to get on one of those ships, I've been stuck in this thing for a long time and I want out."

"Sure, both of you connect to the flagship here and get your butts out of those things." Misato said happily. "It's finally over right? We definitely have to get a party going!"

Shinji chuckled while Asuka rolled her eyes at their guardian's reaction to the events that just occurred. It wasn't as if she didn't think that they didn't have to celebrate after an event like this, hell, she loved parties just as much as Misato did. Still, she knew that it wasn't the time yet, she had a feeling that there were still some things that had to be solved before they could celebrate properly.

"Misato, let's wait a bit before we start partying ok?" Asuka said in a low voice, looking at her boyfriend's tired expression, she could feel how tired he was over their connection. She wasn't feeling that full of energy herself after all that happened.

"I understand." Misato said with a soft smile. "You two just get in the ship and we'll deal with things from there."

--

As soon as he got out of Unit-01, the first thing that Shinji did was run off to Asuka. He ran towards her and before she could even say anything he took her in his arms and kissed her until she was barely capable of thinking. As they kept kissing, since their S2 organs pretty much made sure that the normal problem of running out of air was no longer a problem, the door from which Shinji arrived opened again, revealing Misato, Kaji, The Black Knight, Toji and Kensuke.

"Man, not even five minutes passed and they're already at it…" Kensuke said with an annoyed tone.

"No matter how many times I see it, that spectacle is horrible, I'll have scars for life!" Toji said with as much disgust as he could muster.

"I think we should come back later…" Kaji said to Misato with a smile, she simply nodded and the tow of them left, dragging Kensuke and Toji with them before they left. The Black Knight had left as soon as he saw what was going on.

The two kissing teens didn't even notice the entrance and departure of their friends or their guardians, they were lost in their own world where no one else existed except for them. It had been a trying time for both of them, but they had survived, they had succeeded and in the end, they managed to rise to the challenge. When they did break the contact between their lips, Asuka felt light headed and she knew that Shinji was no better, she was wondering how come they were still standing. The answer was pretty simple, they weren't, somehow they had started floating sometime during the kiss.

"I take it that you missed me." Asuka said, her voice conveying the fact that the feeling was mutual, not that Shinji wouldn't have realized it from the fact that she was holding him with enough strength to actually crack his armor.

"You have no idea Asuka, these last few days have been hell and I literally didn't get any rest since the battle back in Berlin." Shinji replied, unable to keep the smile from his face. "Still, it was worth it, in the end, we won."

"We did, didn't we?" Asuka said. "It's finally over and we can do what the hell we want with our lives."

"I'm afraid that everything isn't exactly over yet." Shinji said in a serious tone. "We have to return to Sanctuary where I have to… deliver a message so to speak to Sarah. I have to take care of John's final wishes regarding that place…"

"What do you mean Shinji, how could you know what John wanted to happen to Sanctuary?" Asuka asked as they finally landed, still, they didn't let go of each other.

"He came to me, what was left of him anyway, his soul I think." Shinji said with a sad voice. "He talked to me and helped me to get over what happened to me in the battle. After that, he gave me two more gifts so to speak. One was from his memories, it's a lot of it in my head right now and I don't know if I'll ever sort out everything from it. He lived a long life and most of it was not so good, especially the beginning, it's one way to hear him tell that story and quite another to see it from his eyes… The other gift was that core in Adam's weapon, he helped me create it specifically for that purpose, since he knew that I wouldn't be able to kill them and that I wouldn't have wanted you to kill them either."

"So, that's what happened to you…" She said quietly. "By the way, how did you manage to return like that, just in time?"

"I heard you call." Shinji said briefly.

"But… I didn't call you…" Asuka said, confused about what he meant.

"You did, when you were angry, that anger was directed at those four. You were so angry that you sent me the entire thing as you perceived it through your senses. That's how I knew where to appear." Shinji replied, he was visibly rolling the facts through his mind. "I guess, things like that are normal for people like us, when they love each other."

"I suppose so, but I didn't hear about any couple that was able to keep their connection over such distances like the two of us can." Asuka said, wondering about the fact. "I'm pretty sure that we would have heard about it if it was something common."

"Well, we either love each other more than anyone else in Sanctuary, or it's related to the fact that we have more power than anyone else. I don't see a problem either way." Shinji said with a grin and leaned back to kiss her again. Asuka had no problems with that course of action so she went with it.

--

Several hours later, the fleet was regrouping in orbit, they had to count their losses and make sure that there was no danger to travel via Dirac Sea for any of the ships because of the damage sustained in battle. Plus, they had yet to decide if they were going to do anything about what was left of the fallen Evas and the clones in the remnants of the SEELE base. They couldn't simply leave them out there and have the risk of someone getting their hands on them and doing who knows what with them. Humanity, at least the part that was on the planet had proven that they were not prepared to deal with this kind of power, especially if you came to consider the fact that only five of the former SEELE council really knew what was going on or what they were dealing with.

A meeting was held in the flagship, though it was nowhere near as serious as the ones held before. The ones present and really needed were Shinji, Asuka, Misato and the Black Knight. Also present were Toji and Kensuke as Shinji's friends and Kaji for Misato more than anything else. It was as much a meeting to take some decisions as well as a reunion of sorts. They had postponed it until now to allow Shinji and Asuka to get some rest and to make sure that the fleet was in a safe position, once more cloaked in orbit.

"So, what happens now?" Toji asked before anyone could really say anything.

"Now we decide what we do with what's left of SEELE's forces." Misato said while pondering the idea herself, she was wondering what was the right course of action regarding those things.

"It's really simple, we destroy them!" Asuka said with her usual determination but without the arrogant attitude. "I doubt Sanctuary needs them and it's a bad idea to leave them here."

"Well, she does have a point…" Misato said, not quite as certain as Asuka about the whole thing.

"I wonder what John would have chosen…" The Black Knight said. "Personally I agree with Asuka, the best thing we could do is make sure that no one uses those things ever again. Not only should we make sure that what was left after the battle bellow us is destroyed, but we should also make sure that all materials regarding the Evas and any Old Earth weapons are also destroyed. So, we should make sure that all of the other SEELE secret bases are wasted as well as the NERV bases."

"Can we really enforce something like that?" Kaji wondered. "I mean, I agree that no one's ready for those kind of things and Sanctuary doesn't have the resources to take care of Earth and push it in rapid evolution, but do we have the right to do something like that? Assuming that we do agree to do it, can we pull it off?"

"I can take care of the information part." Asuka said quickly. "I still have all of the other MAGI under my control if I want to use them, they've already hacked into any other super-computers available and I can practically control all the computers in the world if they're connected somehow to the MAGI. So if we go through with this, it will be easy for me to erase all the files regarding the angels and any research that has been done on them."

"I can take care of the Evas and the clones." Shinji added in a quiet voice. "They're made from Adam and with his powers I can control their bodies, because unlike our Evas, these things never had any souls. So I'll just reactivate them and have them fly up, huddle together and the simultaneously self-destruct. I doubt that there's going to be anything left after that."

"Ok, that settles that, but what do we do about what's left of the SEELE bases and any materials that are left in other places?" Misato asked.

"The secret SEELE bases that were hidden away from civilization and are now empty can be bombed from orbit, it's a simple solution. We can simply turn their location into scorched earth, it's the best way to make sure that nothing's left there." The Black Knight replied. "Also, if Asuka can access all of that information, she can also find out where any materials are being held. It would be a simple thing for us to deploy small strike forces to all of the locations simultaneously and take care of it."

"Can it be done without killing anyone?" Shinji asked seriously.

"Are you kidding? They don't have any weapons that could hurt our soldiers, even Toji could waltz in one of their bases and take whatever he would want and his AT field is average at best." The Black Knight replied, everyone suspected that they'd see a smirk on his face if they could see it. "The whole thing would probably be more time consuming than anything else. If Asuka provides us with the information we need, I'm sure I could have what's left of our mechs ready in one hour and the operation completed two hours after that."

"Well, then I think that we should do this." Misato said. "It's the best way to ensure that they don't find a way to re-create an impact by themselves somehow. We can all agree that the two that happened because humans were stupid were enough. We should do whatever it takes to make sure that another one doesn't happen."

"Then I should get that data right?" Asuka said as she took a PDA in her hand. These things weren't the same things you'd normally expect, they had very powerful wireless connections and could handle large amounts of data, at the same time they worked differently in the sense that they worked, like all technology from Old Earth, with the aid of humanity's more special gifts. They weren't designed with a normal interface, instead, you literally controlled them with your thoughts. Since they were capable of recognizing users based on thought patterns, they had far better security options than any password based program.

It didn't take more than a few moments for Asuka to transfer the data they needed from the computers on the planet to the flagship's database. It was all a matter of locating the information then passing it through the MAGI computers spread out in the world to the ships via satellite connection.

"Ok, you have your information on the computer." Asuka said. "You can get it whenever you want. So, what do we do now?"

"Well, I think that you should postpone the erasing of the data regarding all this until the ground operation starts." Misato said. "After that, Shinji can take care of the Evas and the clones and the fleet will start the bombardments, that way we'll take care of everything quickly and efficiently. I'll take care of the fleet operations, you can handle the ground operation." The last part was directed at the Black Knight who simply nodded.

"Ok, then, I take it that the meeting is over right?" Kensuke said.

"Yes, you all know what needs to be done and when, those of you that actually have anything to do that is." Misato said with a slight chuckle which was mostly directed at Kaji. "Let's get this over with."

--

As promised, it took only one hour for the Black Knight to get their forces ready. The deployment was swift and it pretty much caused chaos to erupt all over the Earth when the Sanctuary troops stormed in bases all over the world destroying any trace of angel related material. It was pretty normal considering that all of the soldiers had very unusual weapons, some that seemed to come from the middle ages while others seemed to come from the distant future, but the thing that toped everything off was the fact that they had AT fields and that they were seemingly invincible when confronted with any sort of conventional weapons.

The confusion was even greater when it became obvious that these invaders wanted to avoid hurting anyone as much as possible, not even once did they fire their weapons against the soldiers that used all available weapons to stop them. The fact that all of the computers in the world began erasing any and all information regarding the same materials that the soldiers were destroying caused even more confusion to those that were aware of these events. It didn't seem to make any sense, the questions were along the lines of "who were these people?" and "what could they gain from these actions?".

The confusion grew tenfold when the ships that were first sighted in Germany were detected in low orbit and were filmed while discharging their weapons from several positions all over the globe. It was obvious that they destroyed something, but the places that were destroyed were barren and devoid of any human presence. There was nothing worth destroying in those places as far as the public at large knew, it was the same with many officials as well. All in all, the world knew that something big had happened, but what and why, no one could imagine.

The Sanctuary fleet didn't have any problems in bombarding the locations of the deserted SEELE bases. Their weapons were designed for fighting opponents that could project AT fields or have some sort of energy field as protection, so their energy weapons had no problems with their targets. What happened could easily be considered overkill if you looked at it.

After that, it didn't take Shinji long to command what was left of the SEELE's forces to group together and self-destruct as the plan went. Then, the fleet discharged their weapons once more at the location of the last SEELE base that still existed, this time they fired with such an intensity that the ocean began to boil as they wanted to make sure that no usable samples were left in the area from the remains of the Evas and clones that were destroyed without Shinji's intervention during the battle.

With those actions completed, the war was finally over and the Sanctuary fleet and its soldiers could return to their home and start recovering. Though Sanctuary was never directly affected by the war, soldiers were killed and not everyone had fully recovered after John's death back in Berlin even after this time. It was now finally time to truly mourn, rest and recover, then live on with their lives…

A/N: Ok so 1) apologies 2)things related to what's left of this story or not.

1)Well, I have been busy and for the most part I still am. Writing fanfics won't pay the bills I'm afraid and I can't fill my stomach with reviews ( which aren't that many anyway). Still, I always keep any promises I honestly make, so one way or the others this thing will be brought to its conclusion.

2) Now, the fact is that I've more or less covered everything that I wanted to cover with this story, so I could have this as the last chapter. Still, I could potentially churn out another chapter detailing a bit of what happened after the battle in the next few weeks of recovery/celebration that are obviously expected + a separate or not epilogue, but I have no idea when I'd get them out... I'm content either way, this story has already exceeded my expectations lengthwise, I didn't think that getting it to this point would make it so long yet still make it look rushed in my eyes with some chapters.

So, I'll leave it to you readers. You have three options, end it here, just an epilogue, or chapter + separate or not epilogue. Send your replies with the reviews or PMs and know that I won't choose based on the number of votes but depending on which option gets the best justification.

Until next time. ;)


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